Blood Ties (26 page)

William growled through the door, “Hurry up or I’ll come in and help you.”

I rushed through everything and waited for him to unlock the door. He walked me back down the hall and pushed me back into the room, turning off the lights and locking the door. I found a corner, sank down into it, and wrapped my arms around my knees, shaking uncontrollably. I was in a living nightmare and I couldn’t do anything to help Michael. If I even made it past William, I wasn’t sure how many, just like him, lurked about. I felt helpless and hated it. Selene and Michael’s cousins had to find us, soon.

I don’t know how many hours had passed when the door opened and the lights flipped on, searing my eyes. I cowered into my corner, pressed tightly into
its padded walls. William came towards me in quick hard strides. He grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me off the floor.

He shoved me in front of him. I took off in a sprint down
the white hallway, my bare feet pounding against the hard floor. There were no windows, no exit signs or otherwise. It only contained only a few metal doors with keypads. I turned a corner into another hall that looked exactly like the one I had just come from.

It was a dead end.

I threw myself against one door to the next, trying to open them. William turned the corner and stalked towards me with a smirk on his face. He herded me into the end of the hall and narrowed the gap. I tried to slide past him but he grabbed hold of my hair and wrenched me back. I clawed at him but he just laughed and pinned my arms painfully against my back, pulling me against him. He reeked of tobacco and cheap cologne.

“You’re a feisty bitch,” he snarled. He yanked my face up and forced my jaws open with a painful grip of his fingers. He thrust his tongue in
to my mouth and shoved his hand up under my scrubs to paw at my breasts. I bit down hard. “Fucking whore!” A fist landed against the side of my head. I fell to the floor, pain searing through my head.

He grabbed a handful of hair and yanked me to my feet. He dug his fingers painfully into the soft underside of my arm. He turned his body to hide a keypad. It beeped several times. I yanked
on my arm and he squeezed even harder. He placed his palm against an attached screen. Deadbolts pulled back and the heavy metal door opened. He shoved me into the room. What I saw in that instant made hysteria rise like a tidal wave.

It was the surgical chair from my nightmare.

Jensen stood on the other side of it like a Cheshire Cat, smiling at me with his thin lips pulled back up over yellowed teeth. “Michael, I’ve brought someone here to see you.”

He came out from behind the chair to walk past me. He left with William, locking the door behind him.

I looked around the room and then inhaled sharply. Michael was huddled in a white padded corner, barefoot, dressed in scrubs like mine, head down and arms around his knees, shaking. Thick strands of hair covered his face.

I ran to him. “Michael, it’s me, Liz.”

He suddenly stopped shuddering. He raised his head. The next instant I was up against a wall, my neck in his right hand, his eyes swallowed up by blackness, staring through me as if I wasn’t there. He growled. His mouth opened and I saw his eye teeth extended as he leaned in.

“It’s me,
Liz!” I struggled to free myself, shoving at him with my hands and knees. He responded by pressing his hard body up against me, pinning me against the wall. His left hand grasped a fistful of hair and roughly yanked my head to the side, exposing my throat. I closed my eyes and screamed.

He let go of my hair. I opened my eyes. His face was only a few inches from mine. His black eyes gradually focused and he slowly edged back.

“Liz?” he questioned in a rough voice.

“Michael, it’s me, please don’t
…”

He threw me to the floor. “Get AWAY from me!”

I skittered away on my hands and knees. He shoved himself into a corner and braced his hands against the wall, shuddering.

I wiped my tears on my forearm. “Michael ...”

“NO! Get AWAY from me!” he screamed again, pushing himself further into the corner, covering his head with his arms. Suddenly he was still. After a moment, he slowly turned to face me. Tears streamed down his face. His nostrils flared. His hands tightened into talons and then he stalked towards me, his eyes predatory in their hunger.

I crawled away from him sobbing
, “I love you, please don’t …”

He stopped and his face twisted in anguish. He howled in fury and then leapt across the room to throw himself at the door, battering it repeatedly with his body. William and another rushed in. They pulled his arms behind him and restrained his legs. Michael began snarling. It was a blood curdling sound. It was a sound like a large cat and some other creature I’d never heard
before. His teeth snapped at his captors as he struggled. They wrestled him to the chair and strapped him in, locking the restraints with keys. He thrashed wildly, bucking at the tight bands.

Jensen walked in, pushing a stainless steel cart in front of him. He slid it over to Michael. “Well, Michael, do try to calm yourself. Your Elizabeth is unharmed.” He pulled a syringe containing a blue luminescent fluid from the tray, stabbed the needle into Michael’s arm, and thrust down the plunger.

Michael convulsed, straining against the straps.

I ran towards him. “Stop it! What are you doing to him!” I grabbed hold of the strap around his chest and yanked at it, trying to tear it off. Hands grabbed me from behind and pulled me away from him.

“Don’t worry my dear, it’s simply an inhibitor. We don’t want any friends stopping by to pay us a visit.” Jensen grinned at me in amusement then turned back to Michael. “So shall we un-strap you and leave you alone with your Alisé again?”

He leaned over to watch his face. Michael snapped at him with his teeth with another chorus of hideous snarls. Jensen chuckled, raising his eyebrows mockingly. “Or should we try our little techniques on her?”

Michael arched his back with an anguished cry.

Jensen leaned over him and spoke more loudly. “Michael, I’m going to leave you alone with Elizabeth. Don’t worry. She’s safe, for the moment.” He looked up at me and smiled pleasantly. On him, it was like looking into the mouth of a crocodile. “You two can get caught up, a better reunion I think.”

They dropped a plastic chair next to Michael’s head. Jensen motioned to me. “Please, have a seat. He won’t be able to harm you. He’ll be calm within a few minutes.” William pushed me into the chair and Jensen and his thugs left, taking the cart with them.

Michael continued to convulse. I sat next to him, watching his body writhe against
the restraints, crying quietly, feeling so utterly helpless – and by now, in a constant state of horror. I looked at the heavy straps that bound him. Two were across this chest and hips and three more across each of his legs and ankles. Several straps bound his arms to armrests angled out from the chair, exposing his wrists. There was only one strap that hadn’t been used. It was the one at his head. I knew why. Jensen had a perverse pleasure in seeing Michael try to reach him with his fangs. After several minutes, his breathing calmed and the convulsions quieted into tremors.

I brushed back his damp hair, careful to keep away from the reach of his
mouth. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, then rolled his head towards me. They were dark, but not the terrifying blackness I had seen earlier.

“I’m so sorry
,” he whispered, tears glittering in his eyes.

His words ripped through my heart.

“I love you. Nothing can change that.”

He took a deep breath
, his voice faltering, “How can you, after I almost …” He swallowed and looked away.

I repeated his words
that he had once said to me. “I love you. I have always loved you, and will always love you.”

“I shouldn’t have put you in danger. I should have
…”

“We’ll get out of this. Selene and your cousins will find us.”

“They won’t be able to hear me. The drug has taken it away.”

I noticed his chest. I reached over and moved the neckline of his white scrubs. Deep, long gashes had been carved into his chest. They hadn’t healed. Clear liquid continued to weep and his scrubs were wet.

“My God Michael!”

“Shhhhh my love. It isn’t that bad.”

He moved his fingers under the restraints searching for mine. I reached out and held them.

“We have to find a way. What does he want from you?”

He took a breath and closed his eyes. “He wants to watch me suffer, to torture me as I slowly die.”

I inhaled sharply. “But I thought there was only two ways that you could be …” I couldn’t finish my words.

“Apparently he’s found another way.”

I stared at him. I began to understand that we weren’t going to come out of this alive. It would
only be a matter of time. Jensen would force Michael to take my life, and then use my lifeless body to torture him as he died. Only a few weeks ago, through time and space, we had found each other and now history was repeating itself. We were going to die together as we had two hundred years ago, but now, Michael dying a final death.

His face twisted in anguish as he saw this realization on my face. He began to weep
, “My beloved ...”

The door opened and William growled, “Visiting hour is over.” He grabbed my arm and I stumbled to the door after him, glancing back at Michael as I was pulled out of the room.

***

I don’t know how long I was kept waiting until William came to escort me down the white antiseptic hall. He happily shoved me back into the white room of horror. Michael was huddled in a corner again, his face pressed against the wall, shuddering. Jensen watched him with smug satisfaction.

“Come here Liz,” Jensen called out, flashing me a demonic smile. William and his assistant grabbed both of my arms and forced me towards him. He held a surgical knife in one gloved hand. I thrashed wildly in their grip, knowing what he was about to do.

“No
,” I cried out.

Jensen looked down at the soft skin on the underside of my forearm. “Surely you don’t think I would slit your wrists?” He glanced at my face, his cold steel eyes twinkling. “No, but perhaps later, that is, if you survive your little visits with Michael.”

I let out a cry as he lightly raked the knife across my arm. Blood oozed up from the wound and he squeezed my skin to make the blood run more freely. “Well then,” he said, “I’ll leave the two of you alone.” He smirked. “Enjoy.”

I scrambled to the opposite corner from Michael and held my hand over my wound to cover up its scent. It looked
as if he had stopped breathing. I bit my bottom lip nervously, my arm stinging, wondering if I should say anything – wondering if I should be silent to not provoke him. I was quiet for several minutes then I broke the silence. We may never get another chance to talk before he couldn’t resist ripping my throat out. “Michael?”

He didn’t respond.

“Michael …,” I pleaded.

He shook his head and began clawing at the wall as if he
was trying to dig his way out. The padding ripped away to the cement behind it. He began tearing at it with his nails then threw back his head and let out a mournful howl. He raced across the room and hurled his body at the door repeatedly until Jensen’s thugs rushed in. He crouched down, his teeth bared, snarling. William pulled something out of his pocket and metal wires shot out. Michael collapsed on the ground, his body jerking as heavy jolts from the Taser pumped into him. His body went limp and his eyes glazed over.

They strapped his lifeless body back into the chair.

Jensen walked in, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me over to Michael. He slapped him hard and his head jilted sharply to the side. He opened his eyes and slowly turned his head towards Jensen, his fangs fully extended, his face twisted in absolute hatred for the man who stood in front of him.

“I will kill you,” Michael hissed.

Jensen chuckled in absolute glee. “Really, I look forward to your attempts.”

He shoved my forearm close to Michael’s face. I tried to pull away but Jensen’s other thug was right behind me, blocking my retreat.

Michael closed his eyes and stopped breathing. William came over and punched him in the side of his ribs. “Breathe … you fucking bat.”

Michael gasped in pain. His nostrils flared and his eyes stared at my arm, black as the night, his jaw tightly clenched. He began panting and then he howled, a pitiful howl, and arched his back, the tendons in this throat straining as he fought against
the restraints.

Jensen laughed. “Hungry Michael? Just the sweetest nectar you can imagine only a few inches away. Mouthwatering isn’t it? What would you give to have a taste of this?”

I whimpered as he squeezed my arm and the blood began to weep out of the wound. Jensen moved my arm a little closer to Michael, watching my face with amusement. I broke out into a sweat. I struggled to pull my arm away.