Vicious (13 page)

“Why not? Humans have been testing out things on their prisoners and slaves for centuries. All of the ancient civilizations tortured and abused their prisoners and slaves for profit or educational gain because who are the prisoners going to run to? No one. Hitler’s people did countless scientifically horrendous experiments on their prisoners during the holocaust.

“Since there are no slaves anymore and the global media is what it is, they used a prison, the closest thing we have to a barbaric society, as their science lab. Who do you turn to when the authorities are the ones doling out the torture? So they had planned to keep us there while they observed our brutal strength and agility until the day came that they decided to put us into use. Whoever controlled the lethal force of their ready-made vampires controlled the most unique weapon in the world. They thought they would tame us or appeal to whatever in us was still human to get us to work for them willingly. Obviously that didn’t work out in their favor.”

“How did you learn all of this?”

“There was this folder I got from a scientist before we torched the place. It was my folder. I had hoped it would tell me who I was before all of this, but it didn’t. However, it did tell me how they made me and why.”

“We don’t know what happened to whomever or whatever provided the blood for Lea and me, but it was stronger than what they used for the others. They used the blood they extracted from us to make the others. They had found the best formula to create a vampire without complications or death was to drain as much of the human blood as possible without killing the person before they injected a good amount of vampire blood directly into their heart. The less human blood there was left, the easier it was for the virus to take over their system. They also felt less pain and the transition happened quicker. I burned this information because I could never trust it in anyone’s hands. The last thing any of us wanted was more of us.”

“But how did Gabriel come to be?”

Grant eyed the young man across the room.

“Cat found Gabriel one night a few weeks ago, battered and beaten almost to death in an alleyway. He had lost a lot of blood and was going to die, so she brought him home to us. After much deliberation, we decided to save his life by giving him a new one. It was Cat’s decision, and we supported her. We injected our blood into his heart and managed to change him into one of us. He is less ruthless and blood thirsty than we had been at first, and we are still trying to figure out if this has something to do with his environment or if he is just different. We tried to keep his transformation under wraps, but Lea found out.”

Grant seemed to perk up as though he had had a realization.

“So the other night with Lea. She thought you might be trying to recruit me or change me or something?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t have time to say anything else. We all became tense at the sound of moving pebbles and cracking twigs as a car drove into the driveway. We listened as it came to a stop and three car doors opened and shut. Grant watched us alert but without understanding. His human ears had not yet heard what we all already knew.

“What’s going on?”

“Marshall and Lulu, I need you to guard Grant. Cat, I need you to watch after Gabriel. I’ll talk to her when she arrives.”

They all took their protective and defensive positions as Grant stood up, clearly terrified by the sudden alarm without knowing the reason.

“Anna, what is happening?”

“Grant, stay behind Marshall and Lulu and don’t say a word.”

“What’s going on? Is someone here?”

“Yes. Lea’s here.”

Chapter Fourteen

Grant

Lea walked in through the door at a very deliberate and cautious pace flanked on each side by a male and female vampire. The male was tall and had tussled dirty-blond hair and green eyes that shone much the way Lulu’s did. He was milky white and dressed all in black. The girl on the other side wore a maroon, full-length dress that fit her like a really long tank top and ran down to her calves. She had hair that was so dark brown it was almost black, and her eyes were a dark-amber color like Lea’s but set in dramatically against her pale white face.

Lea looked the same as she had in my nightmares, wearing a purple sequined blouse and slim-fitting jeans that flared at the bottom over her sandals. The ropes of hair danced around her head as she moved. Every step was graceful and dangerous. A terrible jungle cat dressed to look like a woman. They all looked stoic yet ready to pounce on anything that moved—an uneasy dichotomy that unnerved me. The only comfort I had was in the fact none of them had the same blue eyes my Anna had.

“You went through a lot of trouble to get me here, Anna. Now I’m here. What did you want to tell me?” asked Lea with an evil sneer.

“Well, now that you are here will you hear us out?”

“Us? Does
us
include the blood bag over there?”

Lea made a quick gesture with her head in my direction, and I saw Lulu, Marshall and Anna tense. I suddenly realized I was holding my breath.

“Leave him out of this, Lea. He is only here for his own protection. I am referring to me and my group.”

“And I see you have a new member,” Lea said as she gestured to Gabriel. Gabriel sat up straight when he realized they were discussing him, and Cat crouched in a defensive stance near him. What sounded like a low growl rolled out from her chest.

“Yeesh, a little touchy, Cat,” said Lea with a laugh.

“You stay away from him.”

Anna raised her hand and silenced Cat before she could say anymore.

“This is counterproductive. Lea, this is Gabriel. Cat found Gabriel beaten and left for dead in an alley. He had lost a significant amount of blood and was going to die. We changed him in order to save his life. He is now a part of our group.”

“Do you keep all the members of your group in a cage?”

“Absolutely not. He is only in there now because he is young and Grant is here.”

“Well, kid, if you ever want to come have some fun, you can come join us,” said Lea as she nodded her head to Gabriel through the bars. She must have looked positively terrifying, even to a vampire, because he inched a few steps back to get closer to Cat. Cat growled again at Lea as her eyes began to fill up with black ink.

“Cat, that’s enough. Lea, please can we put this other stuff aside and talk?”

“Sure. Why not? Talk, Anna. What’s on your mind?”

“I have a proposition for you.”

“Intriguing, go on.”

“I need your help.”

“Yes, you said that before. What do you need my help with?”

“We’ve found another one.”

“Another what?”

“Another prison.”

The air in the room seemed to run out. The gravity of Anna’s words were not lost on anyone, even Lea’s stone-like companions. I thought of the horrible story Anna had just told me. I got chills thinking that same scenario could be playing itself out somewhere else as we spoke. To watch a scary movie or hear a frightening story is all right when the bad guy or evil place is killed or blown up in the end. You can sleep at night knowing the evil is gone, but what do you do when the movie ends with the knowledge that the evil is still loose and wreaking havoc elsewhere in the world? It must have had the same effect on Lea, because her words seemed to catch in her chest, and the next ones she spoke seemed to come out accompanied by a growl.

“Where is it?”

“It’s a place called Saint Lawrence Prison outside of Midland, Texas.”

“How did you find it?”

“I didn’t. Chloe and Harris did. They stopped in to see us as they were passing through town. They’ve been travelling all over the South, as you know, and they came across rumors of a cursed prison. They investigated to find traces of laboratories, scientists and inmates scared half to death to even sneeze out of turn.”

“Did they do anything?”

“No. They only did surveillance, and they came to me to report what they’d found. Two vampires alone can’t take on an entire prison, especially a prison full of people who know what we are.”

“Where are Chloe and Harris now?”

“They left. They only came to take shelter for one day and to tell me what they had found in Texas. They chose to keep moving and seek out other places like this one for us. We feel we have to do something here. We can’t let others suffer as we suffered, but I am not confident that four experienced vampires and one inexperienced one will be enough to take this on. So now we come to the reason why I have been trying to talk to you. We need your help to take down this prison. This is that war we knew was coming. This is an opportunity for revenge.”

Lea contemplated this question for a while as she searched Anna’s eyes for something deceptive or untrue. She seemed to be trying to see if she was lying.

“Let me confer with my group.”

“Go ahead.”

Lea turned her back on us for the first time and spoke in hushed whispers with the male and female vampire at her side. I kept looking for some sort of flash of emotion to give away their decision one way or another, but I could only see tense expressions. I caught the eye of the female, and she stared at me like I was the lunch special at a diner. I quickly averted my eyes and decided not to stare at them anymore.

When the discussion ended, Lea turned to face Anna again.

“All right. We want to help.”

“Good.”

“But if we are going to stick our necks out for this, we would like payment.”

“What sort of payment?”

“We want you to hand him over,” Lea said with a smirk as she pointed a finger in my direction.

“Absolutely not!”

Lea and the two vampires snickered. They certainly had a sick sense of humor.

“I thought you might say that. All right then, I want ten thousand dollars for our trouble and expenses. We don’t all live as lavishly as you do.”

“I can’t help it if we have inspired some generous benefactors.”

I wondered what benefactors meant. Maybe more grateful vampire admirers like the hotel owner? Even after Katrina, this house couldn’t have been that cheap.

“Revenge is not enough for you?”

“Once maybe, but I feel like bigger battles are ahead of us. I need to plan for my people’s comfort, and you guys are obviously flush with cash here.”

There was a contemplative pause.

“That I can agree to.”

“Good, then it is settled.”

Lea stuck her hand out for Anna to shake, but Anna did not take it right away.

“Uh uh. Not yet. I have some boundaries. If we are going to pay that much money, I want what I pay for.”

Lea retracted her hand and crossed her arms in an irritated manner.

“What are these boundaries?”

“For one, you need to respect the pact we made from now on. No slipping and killing the innocent.”

“Agreed.”

“Secondly, if you must kill to eat while we are on this mission, you must be discreet, and again, they must be criminals.”

Lea rolled her eyes and muttered, “Agreed.”

“Lastly, you must leave Grant alone and allow him to go in peace.”

Of course, this made Lea turn her attention to me and begin mocking me with a mean, playful tone.

“Aw, but weren’t we having a fun time, Grant? I mean, I know you are gaga over Anna here, but we did have some fun, didn’t we?”

“If that’s your sick idea of fun,” I retorted.

“It is,” she said back sadistically.

“Enough, Lea. Either you agree to all three of these conditions, or we do not have a deal.”

Lea turned her gaze from me to Anna and became very serious again. She cocked her head sideways and looked at Anna with that same curiosity I had seen in Anna and Lulu when they were studying something. She was trying to figure Anna out.

“Agreed,” she said at last.

“Good.”

Anna stuck her hand out and Lea shook it hard for a moment before they released each other. I allowed myself a moment to imagine who would win in an arm-wrestling match.

“How do we know when we are going and what the plan is?”

Anna grabbed a small black cell phone from a nearby end table and tossed it gently to Lea. Lea caught it with one hand and looked at Anna warily.

“I’ll call you with the details.”

“When do we get our money?”

“I will give you half when you arrive to begin the journey and the other half when the mission is completed and you haven’t broken any of my conditions.”

“How do I know that you will pay up afterwards?”

“I think you know where I live,” Anna retorted sarcastically.

Lea smiled a terrible smile. “Point taken.”

There was a brief awkward silence for a moment as Lea and her crew began to make their way to the front door again. She turned right before they were about to exit.

“Come on, gang. Let’s get out of the suburbs. The sun will be up in about an hour. Anna, I will be awaiting your call.”