Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles (29 page)

“Before I answer your questions though, you have to do something for me.
 
You have to let the hostages go.”

“Are you insane?” Jinx almost shouted.
 
“As soon as I let them go, you’ll call in the SWAT team or FBI or the vampires and that will be that.
 
No!
 
They stay.”

“Jinx, if you let them go, you’ll still have me as leverage.
 
The vampires won’t do anything or let anyone else do anything that will get me hurt.
 
It shows everyone outside that you are reasonable and willing to negotiate.
 
They are less likely to take drastic action if they think you will work with them.”
 
God, Alec hoped all the hostages in the room thought he was just going along with some sort of charade to placate the man.

Jinx thought about it for a moment.
 

“I’ll let five of them go.”
 
There was a hopeful murmur from the hostages.
 

“If you want to be seen as reasonable and sane, you need to let more than that go.
 
How about half?”

Jinx mulled this over.
 

“Fine,” he said reluctantly.
 
“Half of them can go.
 
But if the feds or vampires try anything then I will kill the rest of you.
 
And,” he added maliciously, “Chris and Steven stay.”

Alec nodded.
 
He walked over to desperately hopeful men and woman on the floor.
 
He picked the elderly, the women and the young first.
 
That left seven spots.
 
He heard Marcus relay the information that half the hostages were getting ready to be released.
 
He picked seven of the men on the floor to go with the first wave of released hostages.
 
He chose the ones that looked most affected by the crisis.
 

Alec led the group towards the double doors and the doorman, being one of the released, unlocked the door and handed Alec the key and thanked him.
 
Jinx stood behind one of the partial walls where he could monitor both sides of the room, his gun moving back and forth between them.
 

Alec opened the door and leaned out and shouted, “Don’t shoot!
 
Hostages coming out!” and stood aside as they exited.
 
It was eerie having that many guns pointed in his direction.
 
It sent a weird shiver down his spine.
 
He watched as armored men with shields came forward to meet the hostages and cover their escape.
 
Alec caught Silas’s eye and said very quietly, “I need to know who this is we are dealing with.”

Silas nodded and said, “I talked to Senator Taylor, he remembers the incident in question.
 
The man’s name is Victor Preston.
 
Vincent said they’ve dealt with this guy before and is pulling the information up on the tablet now.
 
I’ll forward the information to Marcus as soon as we get it.
 
Good luck, you’re doing great.”
 
Alec nodded once.

When Alec walked back inside, Jinx was staring suspiciously at him.
 

“Who were you talking to?
 
There are shooters right outside the building trying to get in aren’t there?
 
You were telling them where to shoot.”
 
He was starting to sound a little hysterical.
 

Alec just shook his head.
 
“Sorry, talking to myself.
 
It’s an old habit, something I do when I’m stressed.”
 
This seemed to placate Jinx a little and he calmed slightly.
 
Alec could smell the sweat and fear coming off the man.
 
Jinx kept his gun on Alec as he entered back into the lobby.
 

“By the way, why are you wearing the sunglasses?
 
It’s the middle of the night.”

This gave Jinx something to focus on other than his paranoia and his mood shifted slightly.

“To keep vampires from controlling my mind.”
 
He said it matter of factly like Alec should know.
 

“Seriously?”

Jinx nodded.
 
Alec heard Marcus say,
“It actually works.”

“Apparently it works,” Alec said surprised.
 
Jinx looked at him suspiciously.

“Oh boy,”
Marcus said.
 
“I have the reports involving Victor.”
 

“Now, you answer my questions.
 
I’ve waited long enough.”

“Remember, I’ll answer what I can.
 
Some of the information I don’t know and some of it I can’t tell you without putting both of our lives at risk.”
 
Jinx nodded.

Marcus started relaying Alec the quick and dirty version.
 
It was not what he expected.

“Why are the vampires after me?
 
What do they want?”

To buy a little more time and to hear the information Marcus was feeding him he stepped closer to Victor who became instantly wary.
 
He tried working his way around to where Steven was working on his laptop to see what he was doing, but Victor halted his process.

“Listen, if you don’t want to put these people’s lives at risk with the vampires then we need to talk privately.”

“I’m not leaving this room so that your people can sneak in here and release the hostages.
 
No way.
 
Is that what you were planning outside?
 
You lure me away from the hostages and your people sneak in?”
 
He was getting himself worked up.
 
It was making a little more sense now that Marcus was giving him the rundown.
 
From what Marcus told him, Silas was pissed.

“Calm down,” Alec said slowly.
 
“These people have been through enough without us revealing secrets to them that they shouldn’t know.
 
Would you put them through what you’ve been through?”
 
He thought, you’ve already taken them hostage isn’t that enough for one evening, but he didn’t say it.

Victor thought about it.
 
He shook his head, reluctantly.

Alec took another chance.
 
He seemed to be doing that a lot tonight, but his gut instinct was telling him what to do and so far it had been right.
 

“I…I know who you are.
 
We need to talk somewhere where they can’t hear us, okay?”

Victor, who had been in the process of moving towards Alec, froze.

“How do you know who I am?”
 
There was a tremor in his voice and his hands started shaking.

“Calm down, you don’t want to accidentally set off an explosion do you?
 
I can explain some things to you that might help you understand what you’re going through.
 
I know your name is Victor Preston and I know that you’ve had some run-ins with the Taylors and…others.”

Victor wanted proof that he wasn’t crazy.
 
He finally nodded and then motioned for Alec to move closer so they could lower their voices and speak.
 
They were in a small alcove that held a couple of brown leather chairs where patrons of the hotel could sit and talk if they wanted.
 
Jinx could easily monitor the remaining hostages while still talking privately with Alec.
 

“Why are the vampires after me?
 
What do they want?”

Alec sighed.
 
“You might not like this answer Victor, but they aren’t exactly after you.”
 
He said it quietly.

Victor took a step back.
 

“You’re lying.” He almost whispered the words.
 
“I’ve seen them.”

“Yes you have.”
 
This gave the young man pause.

“I have?” He asked it almost like he didn’t believe he was finally getting conformation.
 
Alec assumed the man was afraid he was losing his mind.
 
He’d certainly felt that way enough times himself.
 
“You just said they weren’t after me.”
 

“Yes, Victor.
 
Several months ago you were downtown and you came across a vampire feeding on a human. The vampire looked at you with his freaky black eyes and fangs and then vanished.
 
It freaked you out and you ran.”

“That was only a dream.
 
No, I… that never actually happened, did it?” he asked but he didn’t sound sure of himself.
 
He shook his head back and forth slowly.
 

“Yes, Victor it actually happened.
 
You apparently went home, called the cops and reported it but they didn’t take you seriously.
 
You tried to get them to do something about it, but they told you that you were crazy.”
 
Victor was now listening intently.
 
Steven had stopped typing at his computer and was listening to them as well.

“You started snooping around, asking questions near where you had seen the girl attacked but no one would tell you anything.
 
So you waited one night in an alleyway close to where the incident happened.
 
You figured the man would eventually return.
 
And he did.
 
Only this time, he found you and attacked you.
 
Fortunately for you, there were other vampires in the area and they stopped him from killing you, but not before he had fed on you.”

“That was in my dreams too… I… I was waiting there and suddenly he jumped me and bit my neck.
 
I could feel his teeth in me.”
 
He shuddered.
 

“Then from out of nowhere this man appears, grabs the first man and slams him hard against the wall.
 
They fight and then the first man just…disappears.
 
Then one of the women does something to my neck and I’m taken to a huge house…then I wake up.”

“From what I understand that is how it happened,” Alec said quietly.

“How…why am I dreaming these things?
 
Why don’t I remember them?”

“I’ll explain that in just a moment.”
 

Victor nodded slowly.

“You were taken to the Prot… uh… one of the mansions of the vampire clan I guess you could say, and were given a room and told to rest.
 
The next night the vampires compelled you so that you were unable to speak to anyone about any of what you saw or experienced.
 
They took you home and thought that was the end.”

“Compelled?
 
They used their mind control on me so that I couldn’t tell anyone anything?”
 
Alec nodded and said, “It’s pretty standard procedure.”

“What happened next?” Victor asked quietly almost afraid to find out.

“About a week later, you showed up at the mansion again.
 
Somehow you had tracked down where you’d been taken by the vampires.
 
Anyway, you wanted them to turn you, but they said no.”
 
Alec stopped here for a moment.
 
He thought about it for a moment and decided to tell Victor the truth.

“Vampires have certain rules they follow in order to coexist peacefully and secretly with humans.
 
They aren’t allowed to feed on humans, and they aren’t allowed to turn a human without…uh…permission.”

“If they aren’t allowed to feed on humans, how do they get their blood?
 
And who gives them permission to turn people?
 
Is there like a vampire President or King?”

Alec almost burst out laughing at that point.

“No and those are two of the questions I can’t answer without putting both of our lives at risk.”
 
Victor looked like he was going to argue, but didn’t.

“They explained to you that they couldn’t turn you and you got upset.
 
What they did next is where they…screwed up.”

“What did they do?”
 
Victor acted like he was afraid to find out but he needed to know.

“They compelled you to forget the whole thing, all of it.”

Victor didn’t say anything for a moment, waiting for the rest of it.
 
Alec just looked at him.
 

“Is that a bad thing?” he finally asked.

“Yes and no,” Alec said.
 
“A vampire can compel a human to forget certain things, but there’s a limit to that.
 
You can only make someone forget the last few minutes or so, but not a whole day, or in your case three weeks.
 
The human mind can’t handle that kind of blank space in the memory.
 
That’s why you’ve been dreaming about the incident.
 
It’s your minds way of dealing with it.”

Victor nodded.

“But that’s not all.”
 
He held up his hand to stop Victor from interrupting.
 
Alec wanted to get the story finished so they could move on and end this.
 
Marcus fed him additional details from his hiding place.

“You had obviously kept a journal of the whole incident with detailed notes.
 
You showed back up at the mansion
again
a week and a half later with more questions, and you threatened to expose them.
 
You told them that you had left your notes with a friend and that if you were to disappear they were to send copies to the media and the police.”

Victor was quiet.
 
This didn’t quite add up to what he had thought was originally going on, but it certainly sounded like something he’d do.