Dominion of the Damned (10 page)

She closed her eyes as he went on. “So we have to take a little back every now and then, you understand. It’s what keeps us sane, and keeps you sheep not dead.” His hand came back and started pulling apart the snaps on the front of her jumpsuit. Hannah went very still as he reached in to fondle her breast. “I bet you taste as sweet as you smell,” he said.

Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, Hannah forced herself to relax. She moaned against his hand, and tried to make it sound like a moan of pleasure as she writhed against him. He let go of her mouth and looked at her in surprise.

Hannah licked her lips and gazed at him through her lashes. “You don’t have to take it,” she said.

He looked uncertain. “No?”

She shook her head. “Maybe we can come to some sort of… arrangement.”

His grin returned as he released her so she could turn to face him. “You mean, you scratch my itch, and I scratch yours?”

Hannah smiled. It wasn’t easy, but she hoped it looked suggestive. “Something like that.”

He nodded. “I think that can be arranged.” He reached for her, and she let him pull her close. He closed his eyes and leaned in as if to kiss her, and she reared back and slammed her forehead into his nose as hard as he could. He reeled back, grabbing his nose and crying out in pain, and she took the opportunity to kick him between the legs, also as hard as she could. As he doubled over, she ran back to the windows overlooking the yard. The catwalk beneath them was bathed in sunlight, and Hannah put as much of it as she could between her and her attacker.

His moaning became laughter as he straightened up and stalked toward her, careful to stay in the shadows. “You little bitch. You are so dead.”

“How are you gonna manage that?”

She wished she didn’t ask. About a foot of shadow lay between the edge of the sunlight’s reach and the railing. He edged into it, careful to avoid the direct light. Hannah backed all the way up to the center window and clung to the bars. “You’re fast,” she said, “and you seem to have a strong sense of smell.”

“Yeah. So?”

“So what else about you is superhuman?”

He laughed. “If you would’ve just held still, I would’ve shown you.”

“What about hearing? Is that super, too?”

He stopped in front of her, on the very edge of the shadows. “Why? What’s it to you?”

Hannah took a deep breath, threw her head back and screamed with everything that was in her.

TEN

As Hannah screamed, the vampire reached for her, but putting his hand in the sunlight was like touching it to a hot stove. He hissed in pain as he yanked it back out of the light. “Shut up, you little bitch!” She kept screaming. He kept yelling at her. “You think this sunlight’s gonna protect you forever? It’s gonna leave, but I’m not going anywhere. And then I’m going to rip out your heart and eat it while I rape the hole it leaves behind.”

Her throat grew hoarse, but she kept screaming. She took off her shoe and used it to bang on the window bars, adding to the racket she was making.

The vampire laughed. “Look around! There’s nobody here to hear you!” He grinned. “Don’t blow your voice out, sweetheart. I’m gonna want to hear you screaming when I take you.”

“Take her where?” asked a silky, familiar voice. Hannah stopped screaming as the vampire turned to face Esme.

“Mistress Esme!” The look of terror on his face would have been satisfying if not for the realization that Esme was covered in black from head to toe, like whoever she’d seen out on the guard tower. “What happened to your face?”

Esme lightly touched her fingers to her blistered cheek. Hannah hoped she’d gotten burned while feeding her victim to the zeds. That would be small punishment, but at least it was something. “I was careless in my rush to see who was screaming,” she lied as she joined the other vampire on the catwalk. “You’ve found our lost girl. The doctor will be pleased.” She looked from Hannah to the guard. “Unless you’re the reason she went missing in the first place.”

His eyes widened. “What? No! I swear, I found her sneaking around. I followed her up here. She has a stolen key.”

“He tried to rape me,” said Hannah. She didn’t know why she bothered. She doubted it would matter to the vampire she’d just witnessed tossing someone to the horde outside.

“That’s a lie!” he shouted. “You shut your mouth, you little—”

“Enough,” said Esme. She looked him up and down, and her gaze lingered on his swollen, bloody nose and his fly, still unzipped. “I take it she wasn’t easy prey.”

He shook his head. “I only tried to arrest her, I swear. I was gonna bring her back.”

“Liar,” said Hannah.

“Shut up!”

Esme sighed. “Well, I’m here now. I’ll take her back myself.” She held her hand out. “Give me your handcuffs.”

He looked relieved, although the look he gave Hannah was murderous as he unclipped a pair of cuffs from the back of his belt and handed them to his boss.

“And the key,” she said. He kept his eyes locked on Hannah as he dug the key out of his pocket and handed it over. He was still glaring at her when Esme slapped one end of the cuffs around his wrist. His head snapped toward her as she cuffed the other end to the rail. “What are you…?”

“Miss Jordan, come with me,” she said, ignoring him.

“Mistress Esme! What is this?”

“My dear Victor, you know we have a zero-tolerance policy about hoarding food.”

“No,” he said. “No! I wasn’t, I swear!”

Hannah just stood there, staring in surprise as the guard pulled on the cuffs. The shadow gap between the sunlight and the rail had already narrowed by a few inches. The sunlight was moving toward him.

“Miss Jordan, don’t make me come get you. I
am
dressed for the occasion.”

Hannah glanced at Esme, and didn’t doubt that she meant business. With one last look at her attacker, who was screaming curses at both of them as he strained against the cuffs, she turned and walked back toward the stairwell, staying in the sunlight, for all the good it would do her.

Esme walked along beside her on the shadowed path. As they reached the last window, Hannah looked out and saw the guard tower where only moments before she’d seen what Esme had done. “Hypocrite,” she muttered, unable to help herself, though she knew it was a mistake the moment it came out of her mouth.

Esme stopped. “What was that, dear?”

Hannah tore her gaze from the window. “Nothing.”

Esme studied her a moment, then shifted her gaze to the window, and the view beyond. A wry smile spread across her lips. “I see.” She looked back at Hannah. “I think you’ll be spending the rest of your short stay here in solitary confinement. You’ve stirred up quite enough trouble for one day.” She reached out a gloved hand and grabbed Hannah by the arm, jerking her out of the sun’s protection.

She led her back to the stairwell and down two flights of stairs, across another catwalk where the guard could still be heard screaming and swearing above them. Down another short corridor, they stopped in front of a lone cell with a heavy steel door. It had a small window at the top and a slot in the middle large enough to pass a tray of food. The cell itself was about the size of a closet, with a steel commode and a single bunk. Other than the one in the door, it had no windows. Esme shoved Hannah inside and held out her hand.

“The key card you stole. Give it to me.”

Reluctantly, Hannah dug the card out of her jumpsuit and handed it over. “I only wanted to find my brother,” she said. “To make sure he’s safe.”

“He is, for now. But I’m certain I told you that his remaining so depended entirely on your cooperation.”

Hannah’s eyes widened as Esme’s words sunk in. She lunged at the bitch, but Esme slammed the door shut on her. Hannah had to stand on her toes to see through the window. “Don’t you touch him!” she shouted, pounding on the door, but the only response was the sound of the guard screaming.

ELEVEN

Hannah didn’t know how long she had been in solitary. At first she lay on the bunk, trying to block out the noise from the guard. He carried on for what felt like hours. His angry shouts eventually subsided into defeated whimpering, then abruptly turned to screams of fear and pain, and then, just as abruptly, they stopped.

She wanted to feel some sense of justice at the guard’s ending, satisfaction that there was one less monster in the world. But she was too focused on something Esme had said.

…the rest of your short stay here…

She knew Esme didn’t intend to let her leave this cell alive. She knew what Esme had done, and Esme knew that she knew. Hannah didn’t know why she couldn’t just keep her head down and her mouth shut. That would have been the smart thing to do. She hoped and prayed that what Esme had said about Noah had only been a mind game. He was innocent, just a baby; but after everything Hannah had seen, she wouldn’t put it past them to kill him just to punish her.

She had already combed every inch of her cell, looking for a way out, for some kind of weapon. But it was made of nothing but smooth surfaces. The bare mattress was a block of foam, no springs, and it rested on woven nylon straps that wrapped around a solid bed frame that was bolted firmly to the wall.

She lay on it now, and waited. Her eyes and throat burned from crying, and her stomach gnawed at itself with hunger. She wished she’d taken the time to finish her breakfast that morning.

She wished she’d been smart enough to stay in the damn shelter.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor. They sounded heavier than Esme’s. Hannah stood up. Her hands balled into fists, held at the ready as she waited. She remembered her training, and that in itself was a weapon. They might be stronger, but she could damn sure cause them pain before they finished her.

The door opened, and Hannah stepped back, leaving herself more room to kick.

“Are you all right?”

The doctor stood in the doorway, and Hannah blinked at him in surprise. He’d exchanged his lab coat for a set of the black fatigues that the others wore. He was alone, and he held the door open, as if expecting her to just walk through it.

“Where’s my brother?” she asked.

“He’s safe. Come on. We’re leaving.” When Hannah didn’t move, he lifted an eyebrow. “Unless you’d actually rather stay here?”

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you back to my camp.” His gaze grew concerned, and he came into the cell with her. “You have a contusion on your forehead,” he said as he took hold of her face.

She jerked away from his touch. “Yeah, that happens when you hit somebody with it. Why are we going to your camp?”

A slight smile tugged one corner of his mouth. Was that a look of amusement? Or appreciation? “I’ll explain everything when we get there. There are too many curious ears here, and they have excellent hearing.”

He exited the cell and waited for her to follow. She did, warily. As they walked through the corridor, she kept some distance between them, walking two steps behind so she could keep an eye on him as they went. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come get you sooner,” he said. “I spent all day searching for you, but Esme waited all this time to tell me where she was keeping you.” There was anger in his voice, and bitterness. He sounded weary, like this was an old battle that he was tired of fighting.

They reached the catwalk and started across the cell block. Halfway across, Hannah noticed ashes coating a spot on the rail, and looked up to see handcuffs dangling from the topmost rail. She shuddered, and stopped walking. It took him a few paces to realize it and look back.

“I’m not going anywhere without my brother.”

“Of course not. In fact, he’s the reason you’re coming.”

“How’s that?”

He looked around, as if to make sure nobody was in earshot, then moved closer and leaned in. As his lips brushed the hair next to her ear, she caught her breath and held it.

“I don’t break up families.”

He said it softly, but with such intensity that she almost believed him. But she still didn’t trust him. “What do you want with him?”

He looked around again, and shook his head. “I can’t explain here. You’ll just have to trust me.”

Hannah snorted.
As if.
Konstantin ignored her and started walking again. When she still didn’t follow, he looked back, and sighed. “Do you want to see your brother, or not?”

That got her moving. She followed him to the stairwell, where instead of going down, they went up to the top floor. They exited, and he led her through another wooden door, and down another hallway, with an exit sign at the end.

“What about those things outside?” she asked. “There are so many. How are we gonna get past them?”

He paused with his hand on the door, and looked back at her. “By going over them.” He swiped his key card and opened the door. It led onto the roof, where a helicopter waited for them.

Hannah spotted Esme standing next to it, and broke into a run as she realized the bitch held Noah in her arms. “Give him to me,” she said, holding her arms out for him. Noah smiled and squealed happily when he saw her, and lunged for her. Hannah caught him and held him tightly to her chest, glaring at Esme. “I swear to God, if you
ever
touch him again, I
will
kill you.”