Blood Ties (27 page)

Michael closed his eyes again and held his breath, rolling his head to the side
, away from me, straining against the tight bands. William punched him again and he began breathing hard, his mouth gaped wide, his fangs glistened.

“Open your eyes Michael.”

William moved behind him and forced his face towards my arm, forcing his eyelids open. Jensen had his scalpel out again and I cried out as he raked another cut down my arm, this time a little deeper. Blood dripped onto Michael’s face.

“NO!” Michael screamed.

The constant state of horror I was in drove in deeper when he snapped up to reach my arm with his fangs. He slammed his head back down onto the headrest and screamed. He clenched his jaw tightly and turned his head to the side, panting. “Let her go. You have my death. She is nothing to you.”

“Oh, but she means everything to you,” Jensen sneered. “She will die, her throat ripped out by you, in exactly the same way you murdered my wife and child. I hope her blood is as sweet as theirs.”

Michael threw his head back and let out a deafening howl.

The psychopath laughed loudly. “Well, let’s try a little experiment. Let’s try a little exsanguination to see how you manage your thirst.”

Michael screamed in fury, cursing. Jensen roared in laughter.

“Perhaps I’m being a little premature. I think I shall have William take her back to her room so you and I can have
more time together.”

I fought them
, yanking against their tight grip. “You fucking bastards! I hope you all die in hell!”

Chapter 17

Michael breathed in short, jagged breaths. He was strapped to the chair and they had cut open his shirt. His eyes were open and they blindly stared at the ceiling.

They dragged me towards him. Bone protruded from his chest and I reeled back in revulsion. The ribs in his chest had been cut clean through.

Jensen jabbed his heavily gloved fingers into the deep wound. Michael screamed. Jensen’s eyes glowed with excitement as he twisted his fingers back and forth in his chest, digging deeper. His screams became more desperate.

I lunged at Jensen
. “You sick bastard! Stop it! You’re killing him!” His thugs yanked me back.

He laughed. “But my dear, this is the whole point. I seemed to recall Michael has already explained this to you.”

He shoved his whole hand into Michael’s chest and twisted it. Michael arched in a silent scream. Jensen grimaced, bracing himself, and bore down. I heard something snap. He pulled out his hand and held out one of Michael’s ribs like a trophy, the pale muscle and veins clinging to it. The tissue quivered as if it were alive.

The room began
to rotate around me. Jensen shoved the rib like a dagger back into his chest. Michael’s eyes went wide and liquid jetted out of his mouth. He exhaled a slow gurgling breath. He jerked spasmodically against the restraints. His eyes glazed over.

I sagged in my captor
’s hands and began to dry heave. William grabbed a fistful of my hair and forced my head up to watch the spectacle of torture.

Jensen moved to the cart and pulled off his rubber gloves. He watched Michael’s convulsions with interest
, then removed something from the tray. On the inside of Michael’s arm, he inserted a long needle attached to rubber tubing and taped it. He put the other end of it into a container attached underneath the chair. I heard the patter of blood against plastic as gravity took its course.

They shoved me back down into the plastic lawn chair on the other side, this time handcuffing my wrist to the metal
frame of the surgical chair. They left, taking their little shop of wheeled horror with them. I reached out with my fingers and held his unresponsive ones in mine.

After a few minutes, h
e turned his head in my direction. He stared at me, not blinking, his eyes black as the night, his fangs fully extended. He gasped shallow breaths. “Please forgive me. If I didn’t exist, you would be safe. Forgive me … for what I will do.” He began panting again and a growl rumbled out of his chest. He stared at my throat.

I watched him, crying silently. Then I had a thought. If I let him take my life now, he might have enough strength to escape.
I wiped my tears away and got up and began to lean over him.

“NO! Don’t do this! It’s suicide!”

I put on a brave face, trying to hold back my sobs. “I can’t bear to watch you being tortured. You’ll have a chance to escape. It’s not suicide if I give my life for another.”

I pulled my hair away from my throat and leaned over him, closing my eyes,
holding my breath, waiting for his teeth to tear into me.

Michael threw his head back and cried out, “GOD HELP ME!”

The door burst open and I was ripped off him, then thrown back into my room. I crawled back into my corner, my arms curled around my head, weeping. It wouldn’t be long now. Michael was close to death. He would rather take my life by force then have me offer myself up to him as a suicide. He’d rather burn alone in hell than take me with him.

***

I stared at the sink and toilet.  Didn’t they have moving parts, something I could use as a weapon? I looked underneath the sink. Nothing below was exposed and there was no stopper.

I turned on the
water to cover up any noise and quietly pulled the lid off the toilet and looked inside. There was a metal arm and a pin holding it to a chain. I worked at the nut that attached the arm to the lever but it was rusted tight. I tried snapping the arm off but it wouldn’t bend. I started to panic.

I prayed.

I grabbed the towel and used it as leverage to twist the nut.

It didn’t move.

I tried again, concentrating all of my strength into my fingers and arm.

This time it gave.
Thank God.

William yelled for me to hurry up.

I quickly disassembled the pieces and hid the length of metal in my underwear. I flushed the toilet manually and quietly replaced the lid.

I was wiping my hands on
a towel when he opened the door. He didn’t shove me as he had before. Perhaps he knew that this time, I was walking to my death. I moved along, passive in his tight grip.

Michael was on his side in a corner, tremors shaking his body. His face was drawn and his eyes sunken. Mournful cries poured out of him. I held back the urge to panic. I couldn’t lose it – not now. Earlier, I had been brave when I’d offered him my life. Now I wanted to flee in terror.

I took deep calming breaths. I convinced myself he would be lucid long enough for me to pass him the metal arm before the blood lust took over. If I didn’t survive these next few minutes, at least he would have a chance.

I walked towards him cautiously then bent down and held his hand. It was emaciated, leathery to the touch. He continued to make those mournful
cries.

I moved closer, dropping to my knees, positioning my body next to him. He stopped breathing. Hiding my movements from the camera
I had seen on the ceiling, I pulled out the piece of metal and placed it into his hand and closed his fingers around it. I slowly backed away and got to my feet.

He
stilled and rolled to his hands and knees. A monstrous look slid across his face. He whipped out his hand and threw me back against the chair. “GET AWAY from me!”

I
crumpled to the floor in pain.

A hideous growl poured out of his chest. He began to crawl towards me. I scrambled to get out of reach.

He caught my ankle. I screamed and fought to free myself. He pulled me towards him and flipped me over on my back. He crawled up over me and straddled my hips. He grabbed a fistful of hair.

I stared up into his hideous, monstrous face. This would be the last thing I would ever see.

Suddenly, he threw his head back and let out an agonized cry. He lurched to his feet and hurled his body at the door. I shoved myself under the chair.

They rushed in. Michael plunged the
metal directly into the chest of the first guard through the door. With a surprised look he dropped to the floor, blood blossoming on his grey shirt.

Simultaneously Michael sun
k his teeth into William’s neck. Michael held on to him as he fought to free himself, yelling his outrage then quieting to rasping pants. Michael drank him down in great convulsing swallows. In moments, William’s body began to spasm. Michael snapped his neck and dropped him.

He
yanked the other one off the floor. The guard screamed as he tore into his throat. I watch in horror, terrified, knowing with almost certainty I was next.

An alarm sounded.

More rushed in through the door with rifles and dart guns. In a blurred movement, Michael unarmed them and snapped their necks. The last two, he held on to, draining one while he held the other by his throat. The guard fought him. He kicked and twisted, clawing at the hand around his throat, waiting for his turn.

After he’d finished with the last one, Michael flicked his eyes to me. The sunken look on his face had disappeared.
It was back to its beautiful perfection, but yet at the same time, so utterly inhuman. He stood up straight and squared his shoulders, then turned towards me.

Before I could let out the very last scream of my life, he threw me over his shoulder and we were in the hallway in front of a door. He kicked it off its hinges then set me down on my feet and pushed me up against a wall.

I saw Jensen, laptop in hand, frozen in fear, his mouth gaping in horror. What little color he had in his blotched skin drained out of him. The laptop dropped from his hands to clatter on the floor.

Michael stalked towards him
, the air suddenly filling with a pressure, almost as if it crackled with electricity. Two huge uniformed men rushed him. He swiftly snapped their necks. They fell to the floor, jerking spasmodically. Several more knelt in front of Jensen and began firing tranquilizer guns. He caught each dart as it was fired and in a blur, fired them back, lodging them deeply into the forehead of each of the gunmen. More began to rush him from all sides. He continued with his deadly walk towards Jensen, killing as they came. Once the barrage stopped and Jensen realized he was the only one left alive, he took off running.

Instantly Michael was in front of him.

Jensen screamed as Michael ripped into his throat like a wild animal. There was the wet, ripping sound of tearing flesh. Blood sprayed into the air. Jensen began to make sick gurgling noises as he hung limp in Michael’s arms.

I slid down the wall and turned my face into it, holding my mouth in my hands, dry-heaving.
The sickening sounds seemed to go on forever. Then, I heard a sharp crack then felt Michael’s presence. I pressed myself tighter to the wall, wondering if he had pulled me out of that den of horror as a snack-to-go.

He threw me back up on his shoulder and kicked through another door. There was a blast
of heat and bright sunlight. The ground underneath blurred. I closed my eyes fighting more nausea. Suddenly he stopped and set me on my feet. He was a gruesome sight – blood covered his mouth and chin, and more covered his throat and chest. He gave me a stern look. It was very clear. I wasn’t to move from this spot. He disappeared.

My legs gave out and I slid down to the hot
cement. I wasn’t going anywhere. Trying to escape, crawling along the ground on my hands and knees wouldn’t inconvenience a ravenous vampire in the slightest. I began to shake violently, gasping for air as if I couldn’t get enough. I shivered with cold even though it had to be at least a hundred degrees. I curled up into a ball on my side and wrapped my arms around my chest for warmth.

It wasn’t long before he returned. I was past caring if he was going to eat me.

He groaned under his breath and pulled my arm away from me. I waited for the sharp pain of his fangs. Instead, he wrapped something around my forearm. He lifted me to a sitting position and I felt plastic up against my bottom lip and a slosh of water. I kept my eyes closed. I didn’t want to see any blood. The nauseating smell of it, metallic, gamey like raw steak, filled the air.

I swallowed a few mouthfuls then was in his arms again, barely jostled as he ran. It felt
as if I were floating on my back in a pool. I tried to open my eyes but the wind burned them. I buried my face into the crook of his neck.

There was a deafening noise. “Nothing to be afraid of my love.
They won’t bother anyone again.”

He abruptly stopped and whipped us around. I opened my eyes, blinking. We were huddled up against a huge boulder. I heard a faint rumbling that seemed to be coming towards us.

“Mi …chael?”

“Helicopters.”

He searched the sky. His skin, what wasn’t covered in dried blood, was eerie in the sun –pale and translucent like a thin parchment. He clenched his teeth and the structural tissue underneath tightened. I closed my eyes at my sudden nausea. From the haze that was sucking me under, I heard Michael whisper, “We’re safe, don’t worry. We’re at least fifty miles away.” The rumbling slowly faded.