Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles (23 page)

“I saw her face as she was shooting at me.
 
She had the same slack faced, dull eyed look I’ve seen others wearing while they are being compelled.”

Dorn nodded, thinking.
 

“So you think that Ms. Farris was compelled to waltz straight through the doors with a semi-automatic weapon and open fire on you?
 
Who would be so damn stupid…I’m sorry Alec, please excuse my language, but who would be so stupid as to attack a guest in Silas’s own house?
 
That’s ballsy for you.
 
Sorry.”

Alec nodded wholeheartedly.
 
“I honestly don’t know.”

“How many vampires have you pissed off?” Dorn asked the question rhetorically but looked at Alec speculatively.
 

Alec shrugged and shook his head.
 

“Who knows?
 
There are bound to be those out there that find my existence offensive.
 
By the way, what was the big ugly looking knife for?”

“It was for cutting your head off, Alec.
 
If she could shoot you and slow you down, she would have used it to remove your head from your shoulders.
 
It’s one of the only surefire ways to kill a vampire.”

Alec swallowed uneasily at the thought.
 
Good thing he’d heard the gun cock and jumped out of the way when he did.
 
She could have just walked in and started with that.
 
He might not have even known what hit him.
 
That was an uncomfortable thought.

“Ms. Farris is awake finally.
 
She’s in a cell but she seems to be unresponsive.
 
I was told you wanted to know.”

Alec nodded.
 
“I want to talk to her and see if she can tell us who did this.”

Dorn led Alec through a door in the back of the room and down a plain hallway.
 
At the end was a door that Dorn opened with a key.
 
There were a few more twists and turns, doors and halls before they reached a steel door inset with silver.
 
The guards there nodded to Dorn as he punched in a series of numbers on the keypad.
 
Alec could hear several locks click open and they walked inside a large room with monitors and men stationed at them.

Dorn walked towards one and motioned that Alec was to follow.
 
When they arrived Alec saw that the monitor showed a cell with a bed bolted to the wall and a sink and toilet in the corner.
 
On the bed sat Nancy Farris, back straight and perfectly still.
 
She didn’t even look like she was breathing.
 

“Has she moved or been responsive at all?” Dorn asked the security guard stationed there.

“Negative, sir,” the man answered in his deep rough voice.
 
Alec bit his lip thinking.

“Has she said or done anything at all,” Alec asked squinting at the monitor trying to see if she still had the look of someone compelled.
 
He couldn’t really tell due to the distance and resolution.

“No sir.
 
She just woke up, sat on the edge of the bed and hasn’t moved since.”

“I want to speak with her,” Alec said looking at Dorn.

The man hesitated a moment, thinking.
 

“I don’t think Silas will have a problem with this.
 
I would do the exact same thing if he were standing here,” Alec told the man.
 
Alec was tired of playing the victim.
 

“Okay.”
 
Dorn pulled out a set of keys and stopped when he reached the security door that led to the cellblock the woman was in.
 
It too was lined with silver.
 
Security measures against vampires, Alec thought.
 
What was he doing?
 
He’d never confronted anyone in his life and here he was getting ready to confront someone who’d tried to kill him.
 
Something in Alec had snapped when he’d been shot at.
 
He knew this was something he needed to do.
 
No more hiding behind Silas.
 
This was real.

“We’ve checked her for weapons, but if anything happens, stay behind me.”

Alec gave Dorn a look.
 
“Dorn, if anything happens, get the hell away from me.
 
I can take care of myself.”

Dorn laughed.
 
“I guess you can, can’t you?”
 
He put the key in the door and turned it, then typed in a series of numbers on a keypad beside the door.
 
Again, Alec heard the locks slide open and Dorn opened the door and entered.

The cellblock was a stark, bright-lit room with five cells on the left and right.
 
Ms. Farris was in the middle of the five cells on the right.
 
She sat in her maid’s uniform, back straight and staring at nothing.
 
Her jaw was starting to turn purple and bruise where Alec had struck her.
 
She didn’t make a sound or move as Dorn and Alec approached.
 
Two security officers had followed them into the cells.
 
Both had their hands on their guns and their eyes were trained on Ms. Farris.

“Ms. Farris?” Dorn said, trying to get the woman’s attention.
 
She didn’t move or respond.
 
“Can you hear me?
 
I’m Dorn, head of security here.
 
Do you know why you’ve been detained?
 
Do you remember what happened?”

She didn’t respond.
 
She just sat there with her hands in her lap like she was watching television or listening to someone speak.
 

“Ms. Farris, do you remember attacking Alec?” Dorn asked.

At Alec’s name the woman twitched a little.
 
Nothing big or grand, just a small tick.
 
Alec and Dorn looked at one another.
 
Alec wished he was burning blood, just in case she somehow pulled out another knife and tried to hack his head off.
 

Dorn nodded to Alec and motioned for him to speak to the woman.

“Ms. Farris, I’m Alec.
 
Do you remember me?”
 
When Alec spoke, Ms. Farris twitched again.
 
Her hands seemed to spasm like she was squeezing something.

Very quietly she said, “Alec?” like she was confused or lost and his name held some meaning for her.
 
She licked her lips and wrinkled her brow, thinking.

“Alec,” she said very quietly, “I have a message for you.”

A cold chill went down Alec’s spine.
 
Ms. Farris was speaking so low that Alec could barely hear her.
 
Dorn narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
 

“Alec.”
 
This time her voice carried some volume and Dorn could hear her as well.
 
She turned then on the bed to face Alec, her green eyes meeting his blue.
 

“I have a message for you.”
 
She stood then and started walking slowly towards the bars of her cage, each step measured and precise.
 
She tilted her head to the right, like she was listening to something.

“He wanted me to tell you something, Alec.”
 
Step by step she got closer to the bars.
 
Both security men still had their hands on their weapons.
 
Alec’s heart was beating quickly in anticipation of what might happen.
 
Then, Ms. Farris stopped and just stood there.

“He wanted me to tell you…he’s coming for you.”
 
She smiled a little then, like she was remembering something pleasant.
 
Her demeanor slowly changed, her smile turning to confusion, then to fear and then to pain.
 
She shook her head slowly like she was fighting with something.

“He wanted me to tell you he’s coming…for you.”

“Who?
 
Who’s coming for me?” Alec asked, a tremor of fear in his voice.

Her eyes snapped back to Alec’s again and her gaze burned with manic ferocity.
 
This time she didn’t whisper.
 
She screamed.

“THE DEVIL…THE DEVIL IS COMING FOR YOU, ALEC!” As she screamed these words she threw herself at the bars of her cell like a mad woman and began bashing her head against them over and over again.
 
Blood and gore covered the woman’s face.
 
Dorn grabbed his walkie-talkie and screamed into it that they needed a medic and sedatives immediately.
 
Alec was suddenly burning blood but he could only watch helplessly as the woman thrashed and beat her head bloody.
 
Then she just stopped.

Alec was burning blood so his senses were hyper aware.
 
He could smell the blood covering the bars and the floor of the cell.
 
He could smell the bitter sting of the sweat coming off of the three men standing around him.
 
And he could hear their heartbeats.
 

The woman said, “He’s coming for you,” one last time and then Alec heard her heart just…stop.
 
Her eyes rolled up into her head showing only the whites and she crumpled to the ground bonelessly.
 

Dorn fumbled for the keys on his belt trying to find the one that would open Ms. Farris’s cell.
 
The two security officers had their guns drawn and pointed at the woman.

Alec just shook his head.
 
“She’s dead.”

Three sets of eyes turned to look at him in shock.
 
Alec could hear a key in the outside door and buttons being pressed.
 
The locks clicked and the door opened admitting the medic.
 
He was a portly, slightly older man with a mustache and he was carrying a medical kit with him.
 
He rushed into the room and pushed one of the security men out of the way so he could approach the cell.
 
Alec heard him say, “What the hell?” to no one in particular.
 

Alec explained to the medic what had happened and that he and heard the woman’s heart just stop and then she fell to the ground.
 
The medic looked like he didn’t believe Alec but he didn’t say anything.
 
When the door to the cell was finally opened and the medic had a chance to examine the body on the floor, he declared her dead and noted the time.
 
Dorn ordered that the body be taken to Doctor Schubert’s office and for the blood to be cleaned up.
 
And then he and Alec made their way through the hallways and twists and turns back to the sitting room.

As soon as they entered, Alec walked straight to the scotch, poured two glasses and handed one to Dorn.
 

“I’m on duty, Alec,” Dorn said holding his hands up.
 
Both his hands were shaking.
 

Alec said, “I insist.
 
You need a drink.”

Dorn didn’t refuse a second time.
 
He took the drink from Alec and both men downed the liquid quickly.
 

Alec poured himself another; Dorn set his empty glass on the end table.

“What the hell just happened, Alec?” Dorn asked confused.
 
“One minute Ms. Farris is alive and the next… her heart just quits beating?
 
Is that even possible?”

Alec shrugged and shook his head slowly.
 
“I don’t know.
 
I just know that when she stopped beating her head against the bars her heart simply stopped and she hit the ground.”

“What did she mean by ‘He’s coming for you?’ and why did she say it was the Devil?”
 
Dorn started pacing back and forth in front of the white leather sofas.

“I don’t know,” Alec said quietly.
 
“She was compelled by somebody to come in here and either shoot at me and cut my head off or deliver a message.
 
Does this sound like any of the vampires you’ve dealt with in the past?” Alec asked narrowing his eyes.

Dorn shrugged and sighed.
 
“No, but that doesn’t mean a damn thing.
 
Some of these people have had centuries to plot and plan and come up with stupid shit to do to one another.”
 
It was a sign of how upset Dorn was that he hadn’t apologized to Alec for his language.
 
This had thrown both of them.

“Maybe Silas will know something,” Alec said hopefully.
 

Dorn just shook his head.
 
“I’ll have to type up the report so that Silas can review it as soon as he rises.
 
He is not going to be happy.”
 
With that, he excused himself to review the footage from the cells and write up the report that would send Silas into a fit upon rising.
 
Alec sat on the leather sofa and just stared at the floor, thinking.
 

He’d been having some issues with being a vampire and questions about whether or not he had a soul any longer, but he hadn’t spoken to anyone about it.
 
Who could have guessed he was struggling with this and could send this message to mess with Alec’s head?
 
He doubted very seriously that the Devil was sending him messages through housekeeping, but then again, several weeks ago he wouldn’t have thought that vampires were real and out to kill him either.
 
What a screwed up mess this was turning into.
 
It just seemed to get worse and worse.
 

Hopefully, Silas had some ideas or advice because Alec was lost and at his wit’s end.
 
He finally took a moment to let out his pent up emotions from the security guard’s death earlier.
 
He didn’t even know the man’s last name.
 
He laid down on the couch, buried his face in his arms and cried quietly.
 
Two people were now dead because of him.
 
It was ridiculous and frustrating and Alec wanted to break something, but it was the truth.
 
Two people wouldn’t be going home to their families ever again, because of Alec Carson. He cried a little bit longer and then without realizing it, his emotions and the turmoil of the day caught up with him and he drifted off to sleep.