Leticia (33 page)

“Relax mate, I’m not going to start with her
,
” Tristan told him
.
“I was actually going to
apologize;
I
handled the situation very badly.
I should have spoken to you instead of verbally attacking
you,
” he told me sincerely
.
“I can’t take back what I’ve done, so all I can do is ask for your forgiveness
.
”

“It’s not that easy to forgive. You obviously don’t trust me
.
”

“I do, I...”

“Stop lying to me, if you trusted me you wouldn’t have accused me. If I was one of
them
do you think I would have offered you my blood to get you back to full health. Notice how I trusted
you
then
?
I know vampires can lose control, you
could
have killed me but I
trusted
you not to
.
”

“I know, Leticia I know, I messed up and I
am
truly sorry
.
”

“I don’t trust
you
now and when you break someone’s trust it takes a long time to regain it
.
”

“Well I’m willing...
more
than willing to do whatever it takes to rebuild it... if you’ll let me
.
”

“I don’t know. Can we change the subject?” I sighed
.

“Where are these two guys then?” Jackson asked him
.

“In the
Basement
.
”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

Jackson took my hand and led me inside, then down the steps to the
Basement
. When I passed Nancy, she looked at me and tried to smile, but I turned away from her. At this moment in time I was disgusted with her. So much for wanting a friend she could keep.

The men were tied to two chairs in the
center
of the room. Both were gagged. Nancy turned the light on; both of them started to panic.

“
OK
,
” Tristan started
.
“
This
is how it is. You talk, we listen,
and you
live. Nothing more and nothing less.
Or
, you stay silent, we push for answers, you remain silent, then you die... your decision. Oh yeah, and you
can
scream and shout as much as you like,
you’re
in the middle of nowhere, only God himself would hear you and I
doubt he’d help
. Do you understand?”

The men looked at each other then turned to Tristan and nodded.

“Good, I’m going to remove the gags
,
” he said as he untied the old pieces of material.

Neither of them spoke,
they just stared at the floor.

“Now
,
” he began
.
“Who is your boss?”

“We don’t know,” the blonde haired one replied
.
“We only speak to him over the phone.”

“What’s his number?”

“He calls us, we don’t call him. It’s always withheld.
There‘s
only a few of us who have actually met up with him. But the ones that have don’t get to see his face
.
”

“He wears a balaclava,” the brunette added
.

“Hmm, so you can’t help us a
t
all then can you
,
” Jackson joined in, walking close to them both
.
“I don’t see much point in carrying this on.”

“Neither do I,” Tristan agreed
.

“Wait!” the blonde shouted in desperation
.
“
L
ook, I know we can’t tell you much, but I swear to
you
it’s
only because we genuinely don’t know. But I can tell you this. The
bos
s,
he’s
crazy, man. I mean, stark raving mad.
Apparently he used to have
his
own law firm or
something
, then
something
happen
ed
with her there
,
” he said pointing to me
.
“
It
sent him overboard. He lost it. He couldn’t work, sleep, eat... his firm was run into the ground... he secured a loan on the business to b
e able to fund this operation.
T
hat put with the money he made
while
he was working pays for all this... and...” he looked at the brunette for a moment
.

“Spill it, or die
,
” Nancy threatened
.

“He’s been selling... blood... we’ve sold it for him... of course people who buy it don’t know it
’
s blood but... it is
.
”

“I don’t understand
,
” I finally spoke
.

“It’s like a drug, but man, when you stop taking it you feel like you
’
r
e
going to die. I only did it
once;
I swore I wouldn’t touch it again
.
”

“The blood of what?” Tristan asked
.

“All you lot, you freaks of nature
,
” The blonde shot
.

Tristan charged at him. He fell back
wards on the chair, still bound
with Tristan over him gripping his throat, his fangs now showing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please...” the blonde cried
.

Tristan snarled at him, but eventually got off him and pulled the chair back into position.

“How is he getting the blood?” I asked
.

“He’s had yours for years
,
”
t
he brunette answered
.
“
He’s told us all different bits of the story, we just have to try and put it all together
;
some of it doesn’t make sense and he contradicts himself. 
Something about some guys attacking you and collecting it. Apparently he wanted to have tests run on it, initially to try and find a cure
or
something
.
”

Jackson and the others looked at
me.
I got a lump in my throat, my body
started
shaking, all
of
them noticed. I didn't look at
them;
I stared at the floor feeling rather dizzy as all my memories came flooding back.

“If he wanted to find a cure to help
her
, why have people attack
her
?”
Jackson quizzed
.

“How the hell should I know?”

“Wat
ch your tone
.
”

“Look man, that’s all we know
OK
, we can’t tell you what we don’t know
.
”

“How many of you are there?”

“I d
unno
exactly
, there w
ere
around thirty of us to begin with, now there’s a lot more
;
but some of us have disappeared, they went on a job and never came back
.
”

“Well
,
that’s what happens when you try to kill people
.”
Nancy shot
.

“
You
killed them
?”

“
W
hat were
we supposed to do, let them attack us for no reason and kill
us
? I hardly think so
.
”

“You bastards
!
” the blonde shouted
.

“No
,
” I said
, snapping out of it and
walking closer
.
“
You
bastards, you’ve ruined our lives, we never wanted this
.
We
were happy, peaceful, quiet, until you bastards decided to attack us. You make me sick, all this for some guy you don’t know
.
You
know at first I went berserk, I didn't want any of you to be hurt, or killed... but now... you all deserve to die. You
should be ashamed of yourselves
and I swear when your time comes, something, somewhere, will drag your souls to Hell!”

“Where do you all meet?” Nancy asked them
.

“It varies
,
” the blonde answered
.

“Where do you all stay?”

“Do you think I’m going to tell
you
that
?
You
would kill all of them. Some of those guys aren’t even twenty yet
.
”

“But you don’t mind those guys coming to kill
us
do you?”

“I don’t want anyone dying
.
”

“Then tell us what we need to know, if we can get closer and learn more about the boss, we can find him and end this
.
”

“But then we won’t get our money
.
”

“Your money isn’t my concern!” I shouted
.
“
P
eople
’s
lives are!”

“And if I refuse?” the brunette challenged
.

“You die!” Jackson seethed
.
“
T
hen we find them anyway, and send them to you
in hell
.
”

The two men looked at each other for a moment and the room was filled with silence. Nancy started pacing, she was clearly getting more and more agitated.

“If we tell you, are you going to kill us anyway?” The blonde asked
.

“No
,
” Tristan replied
.
“I admit we will keep you locked up until this is all over, but you won’t be harmed, you will be fed and watered...”

“
We normally meet in one of three places
,
” the brunette began
.
“
Either
at Digley Reservoir, Dovestones, or... now, where
her
house was
,
” he looked at me
. “It’s rare it’s anywhere else.”

“Thank you
.
”

I’d heard enough now and had to leave the room; I needed fresh air. I stood in the back garden, looking out at
the
hills taking several deep breaths.
A
few minutes later Nancy was beside me.

“Something upset you down there, something about a cure. I think there
is
something you haven’t told us. Maybe at the time you didn't think it was relevant, but I think it is now
,
” she said in a rather calm tone.

“I never even thought about it, the only reason I didn't mention it was because I wanted to keep
some
parts of my past to myself. Everyone has that right.”

“I know, but you need to tell us now. We were wrong in shouting and accusing you of being one of them. I’m really sorry Leticia, please forgive me.”

“Let’s just go inside and I’ll tell you what happened
. The parts I missed out originally.”

We all made our way i
nto the living room, and once
again I took a journey into my past.

January 1
5
th
2001

It had been a
few
days now since I saw Luke, I was heartbroken, angry, worried, all at the same time. Why had I been so stupid
?
W
hy the hell did I tell him
?
I guess the answer was simple. I trusted him and I wanted to be with him. I was just about to walk out of my hotel room, when there was a knock at the door. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him st
an
d
ing
there.