Token Vampire (Token Huntress Book 2) (13 page)

              I stared at her for a moment, mixing around the phrase, ‘surveillance camera’ in my head. “What is a surveillance camera?” I asked. Jenn looked at me from the corner of her eye and smiled. It was a Yolo smile.

              “Never mind. With the lack of your knowledge on the old world, I am surprised your Guild survived for so long,” Jenn murmured.

              “We were only educated on certain things, it appears that was not one of them,” I said. I slumped my shoulders inwardly, remembering that my straightened posture was not one of humans.

              The door slid open and revealed many glass rooms on either side. The hair on my arms spiked as I cringed within the atmosphere. There were various vampires, one within each cell. Most were sluggishly slumped in the corner of their room. There was no item within the rooms, just hard floor. I was disgusted, yet had no remorse. At the Guild, we used to tie them to chairs before we tortured them.

              Jenn scanned through the numbers on her page, and found the first one she had to sedate. She followed the numbers, stopping at the first. I looked into the glass room, where the barbaric creature laid, its left leg twitching.

              “You have sabers in here?” I asked, surprised. A small crack was evident on the glass next to the door. She opened the door. Both of us walked in and she closed it behind us.

              “That crack was from a previous Saber, someone missed their duty to sedate it and it was a little rough for the next person when it tried to escape.” The creature’s leg continued to twitch, its elongated claws slightly scratched at the cement floor beneath it. Drool poured from its mouth and onto the cement, it was both saliva and blood. Its eyes pinned on us and it growled. But that was the most effort it could extend. Jenn grabbed its deformed arm and injected the first syringe into its arm. The creature’s eyes pinned on me, before glazing over into a white color. Its pants became shallow and near existent.

              “How are you able to sedate them, what is in that syringe?” I asked. The saber’s heart rate dropped dramatically. If it weren’t immortal, it would be dead for certain.

              “The particles in this syringe make it very difficult and time consuming for the vampire to recover. Although they have unbelievable healing time; there is a lot of silver in this. It thickens the blood stream and takes a long time for the healing properties to remove the silver.  By the time the body is close to doing so, we have already injected them with another shot.”

              Jenn placed the empty syringe back into the suit case and exited the room. She looked over the numbers, to see who she next had to sedate. I looked at all of the vampires and sabers, which were compacted in tiny rooms. How did they get themselves caught? I could admit that I had satisfaction in killing vampires, but never could I do this. This seemed far more unbearable than death.

              “How long do you keep them in here?” I asked, walking closer to one of the vampires whose entire eyes were white. They sat in a corner, frozen and stared at nothing in particular. One of the veins in its neck was a deep blue and bulged out. “Do they ever feed while in here?”

              Jenn looked up from her board, and walked across the room to see which one I was looking at. “That one has been here for three years; she is specifically being tested for biodegradation, to see how long her body will last until she decomposes, if she does. She has not been fed once, and will continue to be in that form until it either dies naturally, which is something that won’t happen. But, that is the test subject they wanted to do the trial on, so simply she will be like that forever. Vampires within the wild can become similar to this. If they exhaust themselves or starve, they will go into a coma like status until someone else can hand feed them blood to help recover. Some in here are fed, depending on what they are being tested for.”

              I walked over to the next room, which had four large and tall containers. All of which were glazed over in ice. The whole room looked to be chilly inside.

              “Those contain four vampires, one within each. It’s only in its fourth form of testing. The first four died. The ice was too intense and created shards within their heart and exploded. The second ones broke out. The third were killed from an insider who lost his mind and tried to kill all the test subjects. He was thrown out into the wild after that, only minutes after I heard his screams myself. Something got to him. And this is now our fourth; they have been frozen for about nine months now. It simply seems they are sleeping. Because of the temperature that reaches beyond something a vampire could usually handle, their brain cells freeze. So they cannot think nor heal, they are sleeping.”

              “Can a vampire really be affected by being frozen?” I asked, with myself in mind. I cannot feel temperature anymore, to think that I could freeze; it was not something I had considered.

              “Vampires can sustain in any environment, temperature is no issue. However, this is adjusted beyond those temperatures, this is manmade, Ellie. No matter how extreme the world might be now in environment and temperature, this is far more severe,” Jenn said, moving away from the glass. “Ah, Fuck,” she said, looking at the next number she had to seduce.

              “What is it?” I asked, looking over her shoulder. She stopped at the numbered cell which matched with the one on the list.

              “Stay out here. Whatever you see, don’t believe or be influenced by it, he is gifted in illusion,” Jenn said. I looked at the vampire who didn’t seem sedated at all. He looked at his nails while sitting down with one arm perched on his bent knee. He had fiery red hair with a blonde goatee. He was also naked and sat on his clothes.

              With a charming smile he looked at us. “Can you imagine my disappointment, after sitting here naked for twelve days and still having no tan,” the vampire said.

              “Are you going to play nice today, Lincon?” Jenn asked, still hesitant to enter the room.

              “Oh, Darling,” Lincon said, as he rose to stand tall. I looked away at his naked form, his very
hard
naked form. “I always play nice.”

              “When are you going to give up on this game, and escape?” Jenn asked, with hands on hips.

              “You think because you are on the other side of that glass, I can’t affect you?” Lincon laughed. Suddenly, I was surrounded by snow and all the rooms that existed, vanished. Snow particles fell from the sky and the sun beamed down on me. It was so cold and yet the burning sun clung to my skin.

              “Ellie, don’t be fooled, it’s a trick-” Jenn’s voice vanished. Where she once stood, was now nothing but pillowing snow. Lincon, stood there proud and naked. Determined not to look past his eyes, I stared unimpressed. This was a very extreme gift for him to have. He seemed to not have been sedated. My smell heightened and I could smell blood. Behind me, there were humans drenched with blood, massacred on a forest floor. Sabers tore them apart, enjoying the taste of their flesh. I licked my lips, my fangs tempted to slice through my gum. But it was my Huntress self that saved me, that was instinctually wanting to kill the sabers. I stood there, reconnecting my eyes with his.

              “Interesting,” he purred. “You know, within my first encounter with Jenn, I was quickly able to see who she, or should I say, he was. You would be surprised how people react to certain things. It gives away their weakness, or even sometimes, what they might truly be under the surface.”

              The field of dead people vanished and then a bustling scene of confusion, burst in front of me. The only thing I could refer it to, was the technology era. I stood in the middle of an intersection, where cars chaotically drove around me. Buildings were high as people walked in steady streams. Cars beeped at me as they drove towards me. I sighed unaffected, if this is an illusion, then my heart will not beat in fear. A car swerved straight for me, still I stared directly into Lincon’s eyes. The car swept through me and the scene around me vanished.

              Licon smiled. “I think I like you. Do you know how many of the humans in here I have forced to drop to their knees? It’s rather fun actually. And none of them will report it, because they will look like the insane ones. I am a sedated vampire, how could I possibly be able to use my gift?” He said sarcastically.

              “What are you doing in here?” I asked.

              “Free buffet obviously. With all my tricks and illusions, I make them sedate me, with only how much of that shit I actually want in my blood stream, sometimes I do it so I can have a bit of a high. Other than that I just feed off of them until I’ve had my fill. They all think they had a daydream and don’t say anything. Everyone is different but you are not human, you have a different feel to you,” Lincon purred. “And everyone reacts to something that they see. It is what always gives them away and answers to me as to what sort of person they are.”

              His entire body continued to shift, his face and body, turned into a different person constantly. His features and clothing continuously changed over different centuries. After flicking through twenty-three different forms, which only my Hunter speed could follow, my eyes rested on the slender eye slits of whom I thought to be Pac. I snarled in response, accidently breaking my own façade.

              I felt a hand on me and suddenly everything disappeared. Jenn was holding my chest in alarm. My vision had hazed purple and I had ejected my fangs. I refocused myself. I wasn’t able to save Pac, who was part of my Guild Team. I now knew that it wasn’t Pac, but only someone who had looked like him. But it had still sparked that recognition within in me and given Lincon the reaction he was after.

              “Holy shit,” Lincon mused. He sat back down against the wall and looked at me very intently. “What are you?”

              “Calm,” Jenn said. “Don’t worry about this, I slipped too.” The vision of my Huntress eyes disappeared, alongside the haze of their purple. With my fangs no longer revealed, I looked at Lincon angrily. This was only a game to him.

              “Alright love, you seem pissed off now. Let me guess, you’re in love with an Asian boy, and you are all protective of him. Wait, could it even get better, is he human?” Lincon toyed. “That Romeo/ Juliet shit gets me every time.”

              “I could rip you to shreds if we weren’t within these walls,” I hissed. He only laughed.

              “Please, quit the tough girl act. I am fascinated by you. Let me just say, the day you leave here, I will follow you. You’ve grabbed my attention, it seems like fun. Do you know how long it has been since I’ve had fun?! Alright Jenn, give us a hit,” Lincon said. He talked at such a speed that it was hard for me to consume his words. He walked over to the door and opened it himself. He held out his arm to her.

              I couldn’t believe that of all the vampires within here to trick the humans, it was someone so loony. The other vampires were so easily trapped and stuck within these walls for a lifetime. But this one particular vampire was beyond measure. Jenn began to inject the silver, until only a small portion was injected. She seemed to space out for a bit and her hand cramped, she dropped the needle. Lincon, was obviously doing something to her.

              “That’ll be enough love,” Lincon said with a painful grunt. He stumbled over to sit back on his leather jacket. “It hurts like a bitch, but that should give me a buzz for a few hours.”

              “I wish you wouldn’t play those games on me every time,” Jenn hissed.

              “Well I can’t trust you sister,” Lincon said with a slur. “You sedate every other vampire within these walls without issue. I doubt, if I told you to stop nicely, you would actually do so. Now rack off and let me sleep.”

              Jenn picked up the needle and sprayed the rest of its contents on the floor. She emptied it only tiny droplets at a time, so it wasn’t evidence on the floor. Lincon clicked his fingers at me.

`              “New girl, come back and see me. I think we have a lot we can discuss. You will need me soon you know,” he said with confidence, before he began to laugh and the drugs and silver were inevitably affecting him.

              “Stay away from that head case, Ellie,” Jenn said, ushering for me to continue doing the rounds with her. We continued to do so, all other vampires lacked in the expression of life. It seems that the only one capable of ever escaping- was Lincon.

J
enn continued to watch me over her shoulder. I continued to reassure her I was alright and sane. A trick as small as Lincon’s, would not be my undoing. After sedating the last two vampires who slightly shuffled and appeared to make a pathetic attempt to fight back, we walked back towards the entrance of this prison. There were so many traps and holes within the walls. Jenn informed me that if a vampire had escaped its room, the weight scheme and a scan system would trigger various traps and weapons. It appeared that even if their own human was taken down in the process, they did not care. I had no sympathy for the vampires, but I was disgusted in the state that they were left in. As a Hunter, we contained and tortured a few, but never preserved them. It was always, kill on site.

              Jenn returned the suitcase with empty syringes inside, and signed off on the four that she had seduced. Apparently Lincon was of no issue, because he liked to pretend and play dead.

              Jenn led me through the tunnels and towards the sector where she worked. Like the other entrance, this too was exclusive and only certain members could enter. I wondered if everyone within the compound even knew to what extent the experiments were taken to. They were hesitant to allow me to enter, but Jenn insisted that I was now her personal assistant. Hesitantly, they let me through.

              “Mr. Richard is the person in charge. Although he dabbles in all departments and overlooks them, he is also the leading scientist here and orchestrates most of the experiments,” Jenn said as she led me down cemented stairs.

“Remember when we enter, you must keep it together. What you will see down here isn’t nice. You can’t react to the people you meet down here either, Ellie. Whitney’s brother is within this department.”

              I tried to contain my distaste. It would be hard for me to keep my calm when locating him. But I had to report this to Tythian. This was his right and kill. I could not take that revenge away from him and this was my bargaining chip. If I could find out the identity of Whitney’s brother, then Tythian would take us to the human camp near our Guild where I could possibly find closure for Dillian and Julia. “I will be fine,” I insisted. I had to be I had to make sure I learnt as much as I could and found a safe haven for them. I had to.

              After walking down various stairs that continued to spiral, we finally stood on solid ground. A loud scream rolled over my spine. I cringed at the mechanical noises that came from that direction. It sounded as if someone were sawing against bone. I refocused myself. No matter what I saw, I had to contain myself.

              Jenn continued walking, unfazed by the noises. There were four distinct rooms and a part of me didn’t want to be curious as to what were behind each door. Another howl of a scream echoed through the hall, it was the furthest room on the right. Was that a vampire being tortured, or another human being tested on?

              Jenn stopped at the first door on the left and opened it. There were three beds, and a lot of glass tubes which were filed in boxes on wide shelves beside me. Two people were lying on their beds. One was being injected with something into their arm. The man pulled an odd face of discomfort, before telling the man in the white coat that he was feeling okay. It smelt wrong in here, the very atmosphere smelt mutilated. I cringed at standing in this very room. A very dashing young man who was administrating the syringe, peeled back his white mask and looked at Jenn and me.

              “Miss. Cadolwadt, what brings you and your guest to our ring of the department?” He asked with a smile. He sat on a chair which had wheels beneath it. He grabbed another syringe and flicked at it, to make sure it bubbled. He then moved on to the next man sitting down. “It will be fine,” he reassured. He injected the man, who gave the same uncomfortable grimace.

              “We were looking for Mr. Richard, actually,” Jenn said, seeming unfazed by the obvious human experiment that was happening. “I am certain he was in his office. He was here earlier.” A presence from outside, interfered with my calmness. I recognized this disgusting smell. I inhaled deeply, remaining calm.
I am a Token Huntress, nothing will break me
, I affirmed to myself.

              Mr. Taine walked in. He recognized me with an expression of disgust. He walked past me and said nothing.

              “Any changes to report, Charlie?” Mr. Taine asked the young man with blonde hair.

              “No. The first admission went well. So I sped the process up on the second. We should let them rest for a time however, and have them report in a few days. I would consider-”

              Mr. Taine cut him off and now fixated on both of us. “Any particular reason why you are interfering with my progress with your new friend?” Mr. Taine asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He was a man who I imagined to keep quiet about our previous meeting. One thing I had learnt about humans was that they were very egotistic and I was certain he wouldn’t want others to know that he was man handled by a woman this morning.

              “Can I please have some water,” the first man who had been administered asked, with a raspy voice.

              “Of course,” Charlie said and offered him a glass of water. Yelling poured from the staircase. I recognized the scent and voice to be Sydney’s. The woman who permitted us through continued to warn Sydney that he was not allowed within the department, without being escorted.

              Sydney flung the door open and summarized the two men. He walked up to Mr. Taine, slamming his elbow into his throat and pinning him against the bench.

              “I told you that you couldn’t administer them without my consent!” He growled.

              “Sydney its fine, we told them it was okay,” the first man said, his voice rasped. I looked at him, his face had begun to melt above his eyebrow and his lip began to dip on one side. “Can I please have some more water, I am so thirsty?”

              “Of course,” Charlie calmly said. He stood up and walked over to a small red button and pressed it in. The man noticed this and looked up mortified.

              “I feel fine; you don’t have to do that!” He said loudly and scared.

              The other man jumped from his bedding and hid behind us, mortified. “Please don’t let that happen to me!”

              “Max, it’s me,” the other man said. “I feel fine, I swear.” His voice seemed more of a whimper and plea. He tried to sit up from his bed, but part of him slumped back. “Syd, you gotta’ believe me. I feel fine.” The man began to choke hysterically. Blood began to pour from his nose as he looked at us all wide eyed. “It’s just itchy here,” he panicked, as if not noticing the blood that continued to stream from his body. He began clawing his chest, where underneath I could see blue bruising and what looked like something squirming beneath his chest.

              “Get everyone out,” Sydney said slamming Mr. Taine one more time. Mr. Taine was not affected by the man’s condition at all, and proceeded out. I continued to watch the effects that this admission had on this man. Was this the same that they had given Whitney? Was this how they were experimented on? I heard footsteps marching above and pooling down the spiral staircase.

              Sydney ushered everyone out, so he was closest to the man.

              “I am sorry,” Sydney said. He pulled out his sword from his sheath.

              “It’s inside of me,” the man snarled. I could sense the change within him.

              “Ellie, come out,” Jenn said and grabbed my elbow. Everyone else had left the room. Sydney lined his sword with the man’s chest. But, as quickly as a switch flicking over, the man snapped. He was no longer human; I could sense that within him, his consciousness was gone. These were the same sensations and presence of a saber.

              Sydney plunged his sword towards him, but the man, no not man, saber slapped it away and against the wall. He lunged for Sydney and pinned him against the counter. Sydney plunged a dagger into the man’s brain. But it was beyond that, this was no longer a man. I could sense the change. I pulled my elbow away from Jenn and closed the door behind me. The group of warriors they had called would never make it in time, not before he had ripped Sydney apart.

              The saber lunged for me. I skidded under the first bed and lifted it within human might, still trying to contain my fake profile. The saber fixated on the others outside. I used the distraction as my tool. I lifted and pinned the bed against it, trapping it for a moment. I could sense Sydney busily working behind me. The saber tried to break the bed apart and twist on me. Before I had to fake weakness and let the saber escape, Sydney jumped over the other bed and pierced his sword through its chest. The tip of the sword went through the saber’s back and tipped into the glass door.

              I looked out to where the group of five men in leather were, watching as blood sprayed everywhere. Sydney took his sword out, and the saber began to decompose. I looked over my shoulder at Sydney who had blood all over his face and down his chest from when the saber had first pinned him. He gave me a firm nod of appreciation and tapped my shoulder that I could now let go of the bed.

              “Thank you,” he said sternly. He grabbed the bed and ripped it away. He opened the door and stepped over the corpse of the saber.

              “He was one of my best!” He snarled at Mr. Taine, who stared at the corpse, his eyebrows raised as if it disappointed him. I looked at the other man, who watched what was once his friend mortified. Jenn held out her hand to him.

              “You will be okay. Come on, I will take you to somewhere you can be alone for a while,” she said.

              “He needs to be put into containment.” A new figure approached us. An older man with grey rasp hair and a honey voice said.

              “Mr. Richard, I hadn’t known that it would progress this quickly. If you might look at our previous results, you will see-” Mr. Taine began pleading his case, but was quickly cut off.

              “You have killed this man, do you have no remorse. Two injections within a day of each other, are you an utter idiot?!” The man shouted. “You are not to experiment any longer until I give permission, you have disappointed me.”

              “But please sir,” Mr. Taine continued.

              “Get out!” He yelled. All others were silent at his command. So, this was the man who was in charge of the human compound. He crouched to Max’s eye level, the man who had also been experimented on.

              “We will put you in there for two days, just to make sure you don’t react in the same manner. If it goes well you can go back to your family. If you were being pressured by him into taking another admission so soon, you should have come to me. I am sorry it had to be this way,” Mr. Richard said.

              “But sir, I feel fine. If I could just rest in my home for a bit, I think it will be okay,” Max said reassuringly, pleadingly.

              “Take him to the containment,” Mr. Richard enforced his power and commanded the soldiers.

              “No, please, I swear I didn’t do anything wrong!” Max began yelling as he was dragged away. Few people had now opened their doors from the other sectors to watch in spectacle as to what had happened.

              “Charlie, you too are in the wrong here,” Mr. Richard said.

              “Yes sir,” Charlie admitted.

              “Come and see me in my office in half an hour, leave for now. I will decide what to do with you,” Mr. Richard instructed.

              “Yes sir,” he said and walked off.

              “I want this cleaned up!” Mr. Richard said to the onlookers who now hid, regarding the deformed half human, half saber body. So this was the experiments they did.

              “You two follow me,” Mr. Richard said to the both of us. “I have some issues to discuss with you Jenn.”

              “Of course sir,” Jenn said as if nothing had happened. Leaving distance between us and Mr. Richard, Jenn whispered so only I could hear her words.

              “From the information I have gathered, Charlie is Whitney’s older brother.” The significance of that one sentence left me thirsting for a slaughter. We walked up the stairs and followed Mr. Richard. I had to plead to my darker self to calm, to not give chase, no matter how infuriated I was. This was not my kill, this was Tythian’s claim.