Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick (31 page)

If that were true, then why wouldn’t Kieran turn my grandmother into a non-vampire immortal? She said he cared about her as a person, and not just as the Selected. Deep disappointment and doubt settled in my stomach. Was Trevor telling the truth? If he was, the leader of the local vampire coven had some explaining to do.

“What do you want with his blood? Aren’t demons immortal like vampires?”

He strode over to the chair, dragged it so he would be in my direct line of sight, and sat down.

“I want to make a trade, of sorts.” Trevor leaned back in the chair, reached into the slim-cut, black leather jacket he wore, and pulled out another cigarette. After lighting it with only the tip of his finger, he took a drag, held the smoke deep in his lungs, and then slowly let it out. “Because you’re the Selected, the vampires are going to want your blood. We want Kieran’s. So we figured we would do a blood trade. All we need you to do is donate a little blood, and then you’ll be free to go. Of course, there is that pesky little part of the prophecy that says you have to give your blood willingly to the vampire who consumes it. So we’ll have to make sure you’re willing.”

I tipped my head back against the mattress and laughed hysterically, despite the pain in my throat. Did someone put a dry cloth in my mouth to drain all the saliva from the glands? The word dehydration didn’t even begin to describe how dry my mouth felt. Even the lids on my eyeballs felt like sandpaper scraped against them with every blink.

My body ached, but the throbbing continued to recede. How long could someone experience such excruciating pain without going insane? I definitely had to start working on my reflexive reactions to rogues. My body crumpled in pain when they were around. I couldn’t run away as long as we were in the same building, and that had to change.

“You’ll never be able to make me give blood to a vampire. There’s just no way to make me willing to do anything like that, so your deal is null and void. There’s no reason I’d want to give the vampires my blood, and I’m sure they won’t be all that happy to give you any of theirs. Your plan will fail.”

Sparks started flying past my head onto the mattress, and my hair started to rise. Trevor was losing his temper.

“Listen, little girl. You will do exactly as you’re told, whether you like it or not. That makes no difference to me. If you don’t do what we want willingly, then I’ll just have to make you want to do it.”

“What exactly is it that you want with vampire blood anyway?”

“I guess since it doesn’t matter if you know or not, considering you will do what we want in the end, I’ll tell you. My sister, because she is half wolf, isn’t immortal. Lisa is mated to a full-blooded lightning demon our father has chosen for her. When Andras finds out, he will have her slain. He needs an immortal wolf-kind to fulfill his destiny. He leads many legions of lesser demons in Hell, and to continue to do so, he needs Lisa to be an immortal.”

“I don’t understand. Why would Lisa allow herself to be mated to that kind of person? She already knows if she isn’t what he wants her to be, he’ll kill her, so why doesn’t she run? I’m sure your dad wouldn’t allow the demon, Andras, to kill his own daughter.”

Trevor laughed menacingly. Scoffing at my ignorance of his world, Trevor said, “You really don’t know anything about demon kin. For a Selected, you sure are naïve. My father, Hurakon, sold Lisa to Andras when she was born to buy himself a position in Hell as the demon of all storms, not just lightning. When Lisa gives birth to her first child with Andras, she will be made queen of all his legions, and my father will be given new abilities, with greater power. It is her fate, just like being the Selected is yours.”

I thought about what he said for a minute, and nothing made sense. How could a father sell his own child to go after political aspirations?

“Doesn’t Lisa’s mother have anything to say about this?”

“Stupid Selected. Hurakon had her executed when Lisa was born, for not bearing him a male child. My father only allowed Lisa to visit with the werewolf pack her mother belonged to, the Midwestern Pack, because it didn’t interfere with his plans. The blood she shares with the pack is what draws her to them, but her demon blood is stronger. Only when her responsibilities as his daughter in the demon world are taken care of can Lisa be free to do whatever she wishes. My father sees Lisa’s affiliation to them as a tolerable hobby, nothing more.”

“Morris’ pack takes care of their own. Why would he allow Lisa to be used like a pawn, and slave, in her father’s plan?”

Trevor looked at me like he was looking at the densest woman on the planet. “Enough about Lisa. The vampire coven leader needs to be informed about the blood exchange. We do have a deadline. Andras will be here soon.”

“Here?”

My heart pounded in my chest at the thought of meeting a bigger, more ruthless demon. At that moment, if it was possible, I was ready to throw in the towel. I didn’t want to be the Selected. I didn’t want to have vampires craving my blood, and I didn’t want a local werewolf vying to mark me as his mate.

My captor’s footsteps pounded down the hallway and up a flight of stairs.

“When is he coming?”

Trevor didn’t respond.

Since the floor of my cell was cement, they must have put me in the basement, or on the first floor of the building. I wiggled my fingers and toes to make sure they still worked. I tested the straps that bound me to the mattress. After pulling my arms away from the sides of my body, it was clear someone had tied restraints around each of my wrists, besides the straps that crossed my chest, and above my knees. There was no way of getting out of this without someone letting me out.

My body was still recovering from the latest encounter with the rogues. I fell in and out of a fitful sleep. I tried to stay awake as long as possible, but exhaustion won out. Hopefully, when Blake realized that someone broke into the house, he would send someone to look for me.

I woke up to searing pain as it ripped through my brain and down the muscles in my neck. It felt like someone had their hand through my chest with my heart in their palm, and they tightened their fingers around it as hard as they could. The pain made me scream out. The binds still kept me tight against the mattress. All I could do was scream in agony. Whoever was causing such a reaction to my Selected senses was standing right in front of the cell.

A vampire rogue hunched in front of the bars, his fangs stained brown. He wore a flannel shirt, and his pants were stained with mud and what resembled old blood.

An odor began to waft over to me. The smell of death oozed from him. He lifted his hand, took a key out his pant’s pocket, and inserted it into the door of my cell. The rogue was breathing heavily, sniffing the air like a perfectly scrumptious meal was right before him, and he was enjoying the aroma before delving in.

When he spoke, his tongue and fangs got in the way. He sounded part reptile, if they could speak English.

“Selected.” The s sound was drawn out, and he clucked his tongue at the end. “I could smell your precious blood the moment we entered your house.” He leapt on top of the mattress and put his disgusting face near mine. “You are going to give me some blood!”

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs to scream out, but he put his filth-covered hand over my mouth before I was able to get anything more out than a muffled whimper.

The rogue snuffled my hair and my neck. When he put his rotten smelling tongue on my cheek, my gag reflex kicked in. My stomach lurched, wanting to empty itself. The pain all over my body began to consume me due to his horrid nearness. His weight pinned me firmly to the bed. I yanked against the restraints with all my strength and screamed with frustration into his hand, again to no avail.

“Shh, you better not rouse the others.”

The stench of his breath made me want to puke. The smell of my own vomit would have been better. He let his hand fall away as he spoke.

“Why are you doing this? They’ll kill you if you hurt me!”

“I’m a rogue vampire, Selected. There are many of us waiting, wanting you dead. Don’t worry. Your time has not yet come. But it will, and we will be there when it does. The Elders may want to keep your line alive and protect your precious blood. We think everyone would be better off without having to worry about what you’re going to do, and whose side you will be on, especially if you are the Selected the prophecy speaks of. We believe we can write our own destinies. We should not have to listen to some obsolete vampires talk about the old ways, telling us how we should live. Vampires shouldn’t have to hide under rocks. Humans are our food!”

“I’ll never give my blood to a vampire freely, so I’m not the Selected the prophecies talk about. You don’t have to do this.”

The rogue giggled to himself and his shoulders shook with glee. “It doesn’t matter. You are a slave to Fate’s mistress, and you’ll do as you’re told. Once Trevor has your blood, freely given to him by you of course, he’s going to give you to us. Trevor’s going to promise the vampire coven leader he will give you safely over to him once he has what he wants, but he’s not going to.”

The vampire jumped off my bed and leaned over. He pushed my sweatshirt up and unbuttoned the top of my jeans. He began to glide his putrid mouth over my midsection. He moaned as he moved. He slowed down and paid focused attention to the depression between my hipbone and belly button. After leaving a pool of vampire saliva on my skin, he trailed his tongue to my side and bit down into my flesh, hard, with his fangs.

The scorching pain from his fangs drawing blood from my body was so intense, my side felt like it had been punctured through and through with a sizzling branding iron that had been stoking in the fireplace for hours.

No one responded to my screams.

The rogue lapped his tongue over the wound, brought his face up to mine, put his hand on my head, and roughly pushed it to the side.

He bit me in the neck. The same sizzling-hot pain seared through me again. He continued to sink his fangs into my flesh until it felt like there wasn’t one square inch on my body that hadn’t been torn open, sucked on by the vampire, and slathered with his spit.

My body began to go into shock, and my vision started to fade. The sounds of his mouth gnawing at the wounds on my skin grew fainter, making me thankfully, mercifully, fall into a deep void of unconsciousness.

Upon waking, the rogue was gone. The pain in my head wasn’t. The intensity wasn’t as severe, but the nausea was still there, sitting in my mid section like a rock lodged in my stomach. My skin burned every place the rogue had sunk his teeth into. The bite marks throbbed and already felt swollen. They were most likely infected from his filthy mouth. My overactive imagination was kicking in. I could have sworn I could feel the bacteria from his grotesque mouth multiplying in the wounds he’d created.

I rolled my head over to the side to see who was sitting in front of the cell.

Lisa.

She wore agitation like a second skin.

“Glad your highness could join us!” She rose from the chair Trevor had placed before the door, and placed her hands on her hips. Just like in the store, she began to tap her green, high-heeled shoes on the cement.

Maybe she had a softer, more nurturing side? Maybe there was some way she would help me out of this predicament?

“Lisa, your brother told me about what your father has done, and I’m sorry. It’s unthinkable to know how your father could do that to his own flesh and blood.”

“You don’t know anything! Stupid human, you have no idea what kind of power I’m looking at. All we need is Kieran to drink your blood, then give some of his to me, mixed with his immortal blood. Then I’ll be able to take my place at Andras’ side as leader of the legions in Hell.” She threw up her hands. “Don’t you see, you silly girl? Fate made me for something greater than this. Fate wants me to rule. My mother was dim-witted. Why she would have me with a pure-blooded demon, I’ll never know. My father says he used glamour to make her fall in love with him. My father! He was so foolish, thinking a child with a werewolf would be born an immortal when my mother wasn’t immortal herself?” Lisa was practically screaming. Clearly, she didn’t appreciate the lot she had been given in life.

“Please, you have to let me go. I’ll find a way to help you. There has to be another way. My aunt has knowledge of the old ways. I’m sure she’ll know what to do. You don’t have to be sold to a demon so your greedy father can get a promotion!”