The Fabled (32 page)

“I must say, you are quite resilient. It
looks like you might live through almost anything. Of course there
are still several test to go.”

“You know, I’ve come to wonder. What do you
get out of this? I mean, the doc I understand. He’s just a
sociopath. The pain gets him off. But you. You don’t seem to really
enjoy the torture so why do it?”

“I was born into the Caduceus. My ancestor
was one of the founders. I guess you could say it’s a
tradition.”

“Some people celebrate Christmas you kill
Fabled. Yeah, that doesn’t sound crazy at all.”

“To some it might. But I watched my parents’
throats being ripped out by Werewolves so I take my work rather
personal.”

“I’m sure they didn’t have it coming at
all.”

His eyes narrowed and I smiled sweetly.

“Okay, I get it now. I understand what your
motives are but there is still one thing I don’t understand. Why
work with Desiree? If you hate Fabled so much, why use them to
collect your patients?”

“That is the thing about you Fabled. You are
so ruthless it isn’t hard to find someone to turn against the
others. Desiree for example. All it took was the promise to raise
her up to rule the remainder of the Vampere population once we have
culled the crop, so to speak and she was willing to give me
anything I want. It certainly makes it easier to find applicable
specimens when they are practically hand delivered.”

“I see. I suppose Desiree’s need for power
has made her blind to the truth that you would rather slit her
throat than make her ruler of anything.”

He smiled. “Now you, little abomination. You
are one of the exceptions. I don’t think there is anything I could
offer you that would make you a turncoat.”

“I don’t know. Maybe a one-way trip out of
here and your head on a platter could change my mind.” I looked at
him for a second. “Perhaps not.”

He just looked at me for a minute and it
started to creep me out so I decided to change the topic to one he
would like better.

“So what’s on the agenda for today? Electric
shock? Oops. Did that one. Hm, let’s see. What haven’t you tried to
kill me with? You know you could just shoot me but I guess that’s
rather messy. Then again, the doc seems to like it messy. You could
always cut my limbs off and see if they grow back. I’m guessing
they won’t.”

“My, you are quite gung ho to have yourself
tortured.”

I shrugged. “Might as well get it over with.
You’re going to do it anyway and to be honest, you bore me. The
whole holier than thou act has been played. Don’t you think?”

He got up from his chair and walked around to
the front of the desk leaning on it. He reached forward and stroked
my face.

“You are so lovely.” He took a lock of my
hair and ran it through his fingers. “I really wish we could have
met under different circumstances.”

“Nah, I don’t like the sadistic dickhead
type.”

He smiled. “So lovely. We’ll see how lovely
you are after today’s experiment.”

Dread pooled in the pit of my stomach but I
kept my smile on my face. “I guess we’ll find out.”

The guard entered the room and led me down
the hall to the lower level again. We walked past the cooler where
the Vampere were held and continued until we reached the end. He
opened a door and pushed me inside. There was another table in the
center of the room but this one looked solid steel with shackles
attacked to it. There was a furnace in the corner of the room with
an open front and several pokers laid in it. I gulped. This was
going to be extremely unpleasant.

The doc stepped out of a corner on the
opposite side of the room and motioned for the guard to put me on
the table. I tried to escape. There is no way in hell I’m just
going to let him strap me to a table and burn me repeatedly. The
guard grabbed both of my arms and lifted me off the ground. I tried
head butting him but he held me out too far. I kicked him in the
knee as hard as I could but they didn’t allow me shoes so it didn’t
do much damage. I screamed. Not that it would do much good. He
carried me to the table and threw me on top but I continued to
fight him. I managed to get my left arm free and punched him in the
head. He continued trying to lock down my right arm while I punched
him. Finally the doc grabbed my left arm so the guard could shackle
my right.

An earthquake shook the ground beneath us.
The entire room rumbled and plaster fell from the ceiling. The doc
was knocked away from me but the guard managed to hold on. I
stopped fighting and just smiled at him.

“I’m back.”

I used Vamp speed to slip out from under him
and ran for the furnace. They want to play with pokers. I’ll play.
I grabbed the first poker and ran back to the guard. It slid into
his eye socket like a knife through butter and I kept pushing until
I felt it break through the back of his skull. I turned to the
doc.

“You and I are going to have so much fun. I
would love to take the time to torture you properly but I’ve got
innocent people to save.”

I knew it would be only a matter of minutes
before Lucian and his team started ransacking the facility so I
picked him up and threw him onto the table then cuffed both hands
before I returned to the furnace to get another poker.

“The good thing is the heat will cauterize
the wound so you won’t bleed out right away. The bad news is it’s
gonna burn like a son of a bitch.”

I used Vamp speed and slammed the poker
through his stomach all the way until it was imbedded into the
steel table. His scream was so high pitched it was almost
funny.

I patted his cheek and smiled at him. “Have
fun. If I get a chance I’ll come back and play some more.”

“You bitch.” He was panting like a dog. I
patted his cheek once more and left the room. I needed to get to
the others before someone decided to kill them all. The explosion
had knocked out the main power but there were still emergency
lights throughout the facility. I made it to the freezer first and
saw the lights were off the screen beside the door but there was
still a lock on the door. I looked around for something to break it
with but couldn’t find anything.

“Here. Let me try.”

I turned to see Phaedra. I grabbed her and
hugged her hard. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

She smiled at me. “I’m glad you are alright
too. Do you know what is happening?”

“You remember those friends I told you about?
They’re what is happening.”

She nodded. “You were right all along. All I
needed to do was believe.”

“We’ll get out of here together but first I
need to thaw out these Vamps.”

“Stand back.”

I took a step back and she held out her hand
in front of her. As she looked at it her entire hand began to turn
red and glow. Then she reached for the lock and it melted in her
grip. She pulled the door open with her other hand and stepped into
the room. As she walked inside I noticed her entire body began
glowing red like her hand. After a few seconds she was entirely
inflamed. All the ice began melting and the Vamps along with it.
She made sure not to get too close to any of them but the heat was
so intense it didn’t take long for them to be thawed out.

“Alright, Phae, that’s enough. I don’t want
to give them sunburns.”

The flames slowly receded until she was
standing naked in the middle of the freezer. I ran to one of the
other doors and opened it. There were supplies but nothing she
could use for clothing. I went to the next room and hit the
jackpot. The scrubs they dressed us in were stored here and I
grabbed her a pair to throw on.

By the time I got back to the freezer Phaedra
was helping Elena out. I tossed the scrubs at her and went to help
the other Vamp. The one still alive was the Vamp stolen from
Roman’s bar then taken though the wall of the asylum. I had never
been able to find out his name since he wasn’t reported missing.
Judging by his magic he was older than the others had been and had
probably been living on his own when he was taken.

I helped him out of the freezer and we all
started down the hallway. We made it up that stairway without
running into anyone so we made our way down the corridor to another
set of stairs leading up. That was when someone came to the top of
them. I prepared myself for a fight as Roman came into view.

“Oh thank the Gods.”

He was down the stairs lifting me up before I
finished talking. He hugged me tight then pulled me back.

“You are injured. Please say who did this
still lives.”

“Um, possibly. I left him with a hot poker
sticking out of his belly.”

“First, I will get you to safety before I
finish him.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

Roman lifted Elena and carried her up the
stairs while I helped Richard. When I got to the top of the stairs
I was accosted by my son.

“Tristan!”

“Are you alright? We’ve been going
crazy.”

“I’m fine. Are you sure you should be here?”
I looked at Roman.

“He knows to stay close to me,” Roman replied
for him.

I smiled. “He’s got you wrapped already.”

“You’ll find I’m not so easily wrapped.”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

“As you wish.”

We continued up the stairs until we reached
the upper level of the facility and started for the exit. I caught
movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to find Neil Niobe
come around a corner and grab Phaedra from behind. I froze in place
and held my hands out in front of me.

“Neil, it’s over. There’s no need to hurt
anyone else.”

“You will back up to that wall while me and
the Phoenix leave this facility. If anyone tries to stop me, I will
kill her.”

“I can’t let you do that. I promised I would
protect her and I intend to do that.”

“You don’t have any room to make demands,
abomination.”

“I’m not making demands. I’m asking for a
trade. Take me instead.”

“No!” Roman and Tristan said at the same
time.

I didn’t look at them. “You said I was
special. Surely you would be willing to take me instead of
her.”

“I will not allow you to take my place,
Sunny,” Phaedra said softly.

“Please. I made a promise and I have to keep
it.”

“You will not leave with the Phoenix. This
facility is surrounded.” Lucian had entered from the front door.
“Lower your weapon now or I will kill you.”

“Father don’t. He might hurt her.”

“It’s alright, Sunny. I’m so tired of this
life,” Phaedra told me.

“No, you will make it out. I will protect
you.”

“Will you? Do you promise?”

“Of course.”

She smiled. “Then my next life will be
nicer.” She turned to Neil and became engulfed in flames as she
laid her hands on him. I heard the gun go off before he fell to the
ground. I could see a dark spot in the middle of her chest that
began spreading as though she were being eaten from the inside out.
As the hole grew ash fell to the floor at her feet until her entire
body was consumed and nothing remained but a pile of ash. I fell to
my knees in front of it. My friend. I had promised to protect her
and failed.

“Do not fret daughter. For from the ashes the
Phoenix shall be reborn,” I looked up at my father questioning but
he was watching the floor before me.

As I looked down I could see the ash
gathering together. Slowly a shape began to form and eventually
there was a newborn babe laying atop the ash. She was covered with
it from head to toe. It clung to her lashes as she blinked and
looked up at me. I smiled at her and she cooed.

My father held out his coat and I wrapped
Phaedra in it before standing with her in my arms. Tristan came
forward to look at her. He wiped some ash off of her face before
looking up at me.

“Guess you’re going to be a mom again.”

“Me? Oh, no. I know nothing about
Phoenixes.”

“But you gave your word to protect her,”
Lucian protested.

“How am I supposed to take care of a
baby?”

“With my help of course.”

I turned to see Aerystasia and a beautiful
blonde haired man walk into the facility. I walked over to her and
gave her as big of a hug as I could with baby Phaedra still in my
arm.

“Thank you, Aery. You saved our lives.”

She smiled at the nickname. “And you saved
mine. Now, I’ll say we’re even.”

“But you’re still going to be Phae’s
nanny?”

“I would be honored. The last Phoenix will
need the strongest of us to raise and protect her.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself. Would
you like to hold her?”

She looked frightened suddenly. “You did
realize that part of raising her would require touching her.”

“Of course. I just thought she would be
bigger.”

I laughed before transferring Phaedra to
Aerystasia’s arms. She took a few seconds to get her positioned
right.

“There. I knew you could do it.” I turned to
her companion. “Hello, I’m Sunny.”

He smiled at me. “Everyone knows who Sunny
Dubois is. I am Gabriel and I believe I owe you a debt of
gratitude.”

“How about we shelf that for later.” I turned
to Roman but he wasn’t there. As I looked around the room for him
he came back up the steps at vamp speed. I could see blood on his
hands and I raised a brow. He shrugged and I shook my head. “Let’s
get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

“A cleanup crew is on the way. They will
search through everything and send anything pertinent back to me,”
Lucian said.

“Good. I want to know what you find out. I’ll
meet with you this evening to discuss it.”

“Excellent. You try to rest until then.”

I nodded and he pulled me into a hug. When he
released me he kissed my forehead and I could feel his magic spread
through me healing my various wounds. I kissed him on the cheek
before he pulled away.