Thirst [All-American Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (24 page)

“Quinn’s men will be here in about an hour. We need to get the information from the vampires in the basement pretty soon.” Hawk’s voice held a dangerous edge.

“What are you going to do? Do you think the men are ready to talk?” Claire leaned her hip against the porch rail.

Brady was the one who answered, “With a little persuasion, I think we can find out what we need to know.”

“Claire, you need to stay out of the basement while Brady and I are questioning the prisoners.”

Claire didn’t argue. She had absolutely no desire to be part of the interrogation of Jimmy and Wayne. The less time she spent anywhere near them, the better it suited her. She would never be able to forget that they were the men who had kidnapped Cassidy and herself. If it weren’t for them, she’d still be living a peaceful, though somewhat boring, existence, blissfully unaware of the paranormal creatures who roamed the night, and her sister Cass would be safe at college. It made her want to kill them herself. Though it had horrified her when Brady had killed Buck, it had been more the shock of the sudden violence than any real regret that the vampire’s life had been ended.

Of course, a sneaky voice whispered, she also would never have met Hawk if she’d never been turned either.

“Brady, why don’t you go on down? I’ll be right behind you.”

Brady agreed, nodding to Claire before he went back into the house. Hawk walked over and put his hands on her shoulders and drew her close against him for a few seconds.

“How long do you think it will take?” Claire just wanted it to be over.

“Not too long. They’ve had all day to stew over what we might do to them. I figure it’ll take less than an hour to get them to spill their guts.”

“Good. It can’t be soon enough.”

“I know, but don’t worry. We’ll be out of here and on our way to Memphis before you know it. That’s when the work is really going to start.”

She allowed her thoughts to turn to Cassidy, still a prisoner of Hunter Garrison. “Have you thought up a plan yet for getting my sister free?”

He nodded. “I’ve been talking to some of my guys, and they have a pretty good handle on things. They’ve been studying those blueprints and Garrison’s schedule, and they’ve come up with what I think is a plan that will work with a few minor adjustments.”

“Are they already in Memphis?”

“A few of them, yeah. They were closer than we were to start with, and they’re already at the house Kirby found us and running possible scenarios. They’ve also started keeping Garrison and his property under surveillance. They’ve learned some pretty interesting things.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that no one has seen Cassidy. If it weren’t for Gia giving us the heads up, no one would ever even know she was there.”

“Is that a good thing?” She hated the thought that her sister had been locked up in some prison for the past year, never even getting to come out and walk around the grounds or anything.

He nodded. “Actually, it is. When Garrison leaves, he doesn’t take her with him. Instead, he takes most of his guards. He leaves just a few at the estate, relying a lot on the dogs he has and his other security measures. It gives us a good window for getting Cass out. The fewer people at the estate, the less chance we’ll have to engage in fighting. We’re hoping to just slip in, grab her, and get out.”

She nodded, understanding his reasoning. “But how will you know when he’s not there?”

“He doesn’t keep his schedule completely confidential. There are some public events that we know he plans to attend in the next couple of weeks. We just need to pick the one that will give us the most time to get Cass out.”

“But you don’t even know where she’s being kept. It’s a huge house. How will you find her?”

“The guys are working on that.”

“How?”

“They’re watching the movement in the house, seeing who goes where and when windows are open. That sort of thing. Plus, one of the guys has struck up a bit of a relationship with one of the housemaids. He’s been pumping her for information.”

“Still, you can’t know exactly where she is.”

“No, but we’ll be able to get a pretty good idea. That will at least eliminate some areas of the house that we’ll have to search when we get inside.”

“Do you think it’s possible that Gia is wrong? That Cass is dead already?”

His arm came around her shoulders. “Not a chance in hell. Gia is the best at what she does. If she said that your sister is still alive, then she’s still alive.”

“Of course she is.” Claire refused to believe otherwise and hated herself for the moments of weakness she had.

“Now I’m going to go down and help Brady. Remember to stay out of the basement, no matter what you hear. Understand?”

She nodded. With a last kiss, he left her standing on the porch staring at the spot where he had disappeared. Deciding that she needed to do something to take her mind off of the activity going on in the basement, she stepped off the porch and began walking away from the house. It was a beautiful night, such a contrast to the storm of emotions that were racing through her. The sky was an endless velvet blanket studded with stars that made her ache with their shimmering beauty. In the distance she could hear an owl hooting as it searched the night for its unwitting prey. Off somewhere to her left, a lonely train whistle sounded.

She lifted her face to the cooling breeze that blew lazily across the yard and finished off the bottle of blood. Never in a million years would she ever have guessed two years ago the path her life would lead her on. She’d been so concerned with her job and taking care of her home that she’d not appreciated everything that she had until it was violently stolen from her. She wondered if she would ever see her own home again, the house where she spent so many happy hours with her father and her stepmother. The place where Cass had taken her first steps and where their new family had merged from two separate entities into one unit.

The house was still there, still being watched over by friends and neighbors, but Claire knew that even if she did get the chance to return, it would only be for a visit. She would never live there again. That life, her human life, was gone for good.

* * * *

Hawk walked down the stairs to the basement. Brady turned to glance at him before returning his attention to the men on the floor before him. He’d cuffed the men’s hands and feet with silver-covered iron, unbreakable for vampires. He’d also gagged them so that they couldn’t come up with a plan for escape. They’d lay down in the basement all day, with nothing to do but think about what might happen to them when night arrived. He wondered briefly if they’d managed to get any sleep and then decided not. They were pale and had dark circles beneath their eyes. To Hawk it was obvious that they needed blood, so they probably weren’t all that old.

Younger vampires needed blood more often than vampires like Hawk, who had a couple of centuries under their belts. If he had to guess, he’d say that they’d been vampires less than a decade. They probably weren’t very high in Simone’s organization. Most likely they were goons who were either made vampire by Simone or hired to do the kidnapping. So why were they after Claire?

The two vampires’ eyes focused on Hawk when he stepped toward them. He studied them for long moments before nodding at Brady, who reached down and removed the duct tape from the redheaded vampire’s mouth. He remembered that Claire had said that his name was Jimmy.

Hawk squatted down before him. “Hello, Jimmy,” he began in a conversational tone, “I was wondering if you could help me out with something.”

The vampire just stared at him with sullen, brown eyes.

Hawk ignored the vampire’s silence and continued. “Why were you following us?”

The vampire leaned toward Hawk and spat in his face. Hawk wiped his face on his shirt and then grinned. “Good. I hoped you would be difficult.” He put the tape back on Jimmy’s mouth and turned to Wayne, who looked at him warily. Hawk knew this was the weak link in the pair.

Tugging the duct tape from the second vampire’s mouth, he cocked his head to one side. “Are you going to be more helpful than Jimmy, Wayne? Or are you going to give my friend and me”—he nodded in Brady’s direction—“an excuse to have a little fun?”

The vampire shrugged, but his eyes darted nervously toward Brady before returning to focus on Hawk.

“Let’s try again. Why were you following us?”

He kept quiet, but Hawk could tell he wanted to talk.

“If you tell us what we want to know, we’ll release you. Isn’t that right, Brady?”

“Of course.” Brady’s voice was laced with amusement.

“But if you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll stake your ass out in the sun and watch from the shadows while you burn.”

Hawk saw Wayne’s throat move as he swallowed hard. He waited a few moments. Then he put the tape back on the man’s mouth and stood.

“Shame,” he said to Brady.

“Did you want to play a little? We’ve got a lot of time until dawn, and I’m a little bored.”

“Sounds good.” Brady walked over to the wall, where some rusty old tools were stacked. He reached down and picked up a hammer. “Did you want one of these?” He indicated the other tools.

Hawk bent down and pulled a knife from his boot. “Nah. I’ve got my own. Which one of these dickheads did you want?”

“I think I’ll take the redhead,” he said after a moment of quietly studying the men on the floor.

“All right. I guess Wayne’s mine, then.” He walked forward and grabbed the vampire by the foot, tugging him away from his friend and into a far corner. The air stank with the man’s fear. Hawk positioned him so that he couldn’t see his friend then nodded at Brady.

Brady lifted the hammer and brought it down on the floor beside Jimmy, who lay there staring up at him. Then Brady let out a soft scream of pain, as if muffled by duct tape. “Cool. I think that might have broken his kneecap.”

Hawk looked back toward Wayne, who had started to squirm and shake his head. He knelt on the floor beside the vampire. “Brady can be a real son of a bitch with a hammer. I once saw him break every bone in a vampire’s body, watch him heal, and then do it all over again.” He shook his head. “The man has real talent.” He almost snickered when the vampire on the floor in front of him pissed himself. Brady repeated his action, this time drawing out his scream of pain for several long seconds.

Hawk almost grinned. The man was a real ham. He shoulda gone to Hollywood. He would have made millions. He looked over his own prisoner and tut-tutted as he pretended to notice the wet spot on his pants for the first time. “Dear me. You’ve had a bit of an accident.” Wayne began struggling again. He held up his knife and ran it over the man’s cheek. The vampire stilled immediately. Hawk turned his knife so that the sharpened edge pressed against the man’s skin hard enough to slice, and a trail of blood trickled down the vampire’s cheek.

The man let out a terrified squeak and tried to say something. Hawk pulled his knife back. “Did you have something you wanted to tell me?”

Wayne nodded vigorously, his eyes focused on the knife that Hawk held in his hand. He pulled the tape from the vampire’s mouth again. “Well? What is it?” Just at that moment, Brady struck again, and Wayne rushed into speech.

“I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just, for God’s sake, don’t kill us.”

Hawk nodded. “Okay. This is your last chance. Who are you, and why were you following us?”

“The woman…the blonde. We turned her, but we weren’t supposed to. We were drunk, and things got a little out of hand. Jimmy said we had to find her and eliminate her so that no one would ever find out what we did.”

Hawk smiled inwardly. “You work for Simone d’Amboise?”

Wayne hesitated, but Hawk twirled the knife, and he nodded. “She hired us to kidnap young girls to sell as bloodslaves. She’d be pissed if she found out we turned one of the bloodslaves, and she’s a real bitch when she’s pissed. Hell, she’d probably kill us.”

“So she doesn’t know anything about Claire?”

He shook his head. “Hell no. Jimmy’s had us looking for her ever since she escaped, on and off.”

“How did you find her?” Hawk wanted the whole story. He didn’t want anything to come back and bite them on the ass later.

“Jimmy had this friend. A woman. She worked for the NPA website. Soon as the bitch registered, we started tracking her. When we found out she was working for the Buchanans, Jimmy got real worried. Said we had to act fast or else she’d spill everything.”

Hawk nodded and stood up. He walked over to Brady. “That’s everything. How long until Quinn’s men are supposed to arrive?”

Brady glanced at his watch. “Probably thirty minutes or so.”

“Good.” Hawk found a piece of fabric and wiped off his knife before sliding it back into his boot.

Wayne twisted around. “Hey, man. You said you’d let us go.”

Hawk shook his head. “I lied.” Turning to Brady, he said, “Gag him again. Quinn’s men won’t want to have to listen to him whine all the way back to Biloxi.”

As Brady moved to follow his order, he turned and walked back up the stairs and out of the basement. He found Claire in the kitchen and walked to her. Without saying a word, he reached out and tugged her into his arms. She slid her arms around his waist and hugged him against her. At last she pulled back. She reached up and stroked her hand across his cheek.

“Are you okay?” she asked worriedly.

He nodded, burying his face in her hair. Relief was coursing through him. Simone didn’t know about Claire. He had hoped that was the case, but there had been a real possibility that she had been the one to send the vampires after Claire. When he had gotten the truth from Wayne, he had struggled not to let out a howl of gratitude.

Now all he had to do was turn the idiots over to Quinn’s men and they could move on with the plan for rescuing Cassidy.

“Well, what did they say?” Claire nudged him back and looked up into his eyes.

“It’s what we suspected. They’re not working for Simone. They were going to kill you so that Simone wouldn’t discover what they had done.”