Driven (14 page)

For
a second as the creature entered his room, Geoffrey thought
he was being attacked by a werewolf. Every single time Geoffrey
had found himself up against a werewolf he'd survived by nothing
more than luck and the experiences had left a special kind of
scar on his psyche. Most nights he woke from nightmares where
werewolves were stalking him and no matter how fast he ran or
how well he fought, they always pulled him down.

The
massive beast facing him through the shining steel bars of his cage
was so similar in size and shape to a werewolf that for a moment he
was positive his nightmares had come true. He'd seen werewolves
ferret out nests of vampires before and the werewolves never attacked
without a sound advantage, so it was rare that the vampires came out
ahead in those confrontations.

It
wasn't until Geoffrey realized that the lights hadn't been flickering
that he decided he must be facing something other than a werewolf.
The hulking, dark figure stepped across the room and came to a stop
before his cage. A second later it tore the door to his cage off of
its hinges.

"You're
coming with me, Geoffrey."

"Who
are you?"

"That's
not important. Move or I'll kill you like I killed the rest of the
bloodsuckers in this little pocket of hell."

Geoffrey
had figured out long before that there must be substantial
soundproofing around his room. He never heard anyone approaching his
door with food until after they opened the door and stepped into his
room, and his yells and the times he'd banged on his cage hadn't ever
resulted in anyone coming to look for him.

He'd
assumed that the soundproofing was because he was in some normal
apartment and Imastious hadn't wanted the neighbors to realize
anything unusual was going on. He'd never even considered that there
might be a permanent, large group of vampires just outside his door.

Geoffrey
filed away the fact that this creature was capable of talking,
something no werewolf had ever done, and started towards the door.

"Down
the hall to your right."

"I
don't suppose you'd be willing to take these handcuffs off?"

"No,
keep moving, and don't try any of your mentalist tricks on me either.
If I detect you trying to influence me with your ability I'll kill
you where you stand."

Despite
the threats, Geoffrey let a few strands of his consciousness drift
free of his physical body and searched their immediate area. He was
careful to keep his probes well away from his captor, but even so it
took only a few seconds to establish that there weren't any living
minds anywhere within several dozen feet of them.

"Stop.
Go inside that room."

Geoffrey
complied and found himself inside of what was obviously some kind of
surveillance room. There were TV monitors stacked in a large bank in
front of the room's single chair and behind was a large piece of
equipment that had a shield insignia on it and red lettering that
spelled out
FastVault Storage
.

"Destroy
it."

"What?"

The
creature's voice was subtly alien, as if its vocal cords hadn't ever
been meant to speak English, but Geoffrey could tell that it was
getting frustrated.

"Destroy
all of this equipment. I don't want any record of my arrival or our
escape to survive."

Geoffrey
poked around for a couple of seconds and then started unplugging
different pieces of equipment.

"I
don't know very much about this kind of stuff, but it seems to me
like the key is that storage array over there. If we take it then
there won't be any record of anything that's happened…unless
it's being sent somewhere offsite as well."

The
creature grunted. "I can't control everything; we'll just have
to hope for the best. Go ahead and destroy that then."

Geoffrey
shook his head. "I don't think anything less than a very strong
magnetic field will make that data irretrievable."

"Fine,
pick it up and let's go, we'll take it with us and throw it in a
river somewhere."

Geoffrey
fought the temptation to talk back to his captor and nodded. There
was too much he still didn't understand about what was going on, but
whatever it was it apparently didn't want him dead. Given the fact
that everyone else in the suite of rooms had apparently been killed
over the last few minutes, that felt significant.

His
best bet now was to go along and hope that he was able to figure out
the score before his usefulness waned. For now he was free of the
cage that Imastious had put him in. He might be headed somewhere
worse, but it would take time for them to get wherever they were
going, and his best chance for escape would come once they were
outside with plenty of witnesses around.

Besides,
it was too soon to even guess at the capabilities of this bestial
almost-werewolf.

Picking
up the equipment was more difficult than he'd expected it to be, the
result of his hands still being restrained and the sheer weight of
the hard drives inside of the device. Geoffrey was motioned back out
of the surveillance room and complied with the unspoken order. They
were several yards further down the corridor before he saw it, his
sword, discarded on the floor next to a corpse.

Geoffrey
bent forward, intending on setting the storage device down so that he
could pick up his katana, and then froze when the tips of the
creature's claws drew tiny dots of blood from his back.

"Don't
even think about picking that up."

Geoffrey
swallowed a couple of times. "It's my sword. I know you won't
believe me when I say that I don't want to use it on you, but I
don't. I just don't want it left here. It's the only link I have to
my past."

"I
never expected sentiment from a bloodsucking parasite like you."

Geoffrey
turned around with fire in his eyes. "Stop. You can kill me if
you'd like, but don't lump me in with the rest of these pieces of
garbage. I am what I am, I don't have a choice about that, but it has
been months since I killed someone while feeding."

"You
expect me to believe that you're a vampire with a heart?"

"Right
now I don't care what you believe, but you will treat me like a
person or we'll fight to the death right here and now."

"You
would lose."

"Probably,
but it doesn't matter much whether I die right now or die once we get
wherever you're taking me, I'll be dead either way. Honestly I didn't
expect to ever get out of that cage, so as things stand right now I'm
much better off than I ever imagined I might be."

"Fine.
Keep walking. I'll grab your weapon, and I'll get the sheath too."

Geoffrey
picked the storage device back up and started slowly down the hall.
There was an odd feeling, like an unseen breeze tracing the back of
his neck, and then a familiar set of sounds as his beloved katana was
picked up and sheathed.

The
two of them were nearly to the front door before Geoffrey realized
that the steps following him sounded different, lighter and less
harsh. Geoffrey turned around and saw one of the most beautiful women
he'd ever seen anywhere.

Previously
Melody and Venice had always set the bar when it came to his personal
standard of beauty, but as disloyal as it felt to both of their
memories, this girl was every bit as beautiful and in some ways even
surpassed them. Geoffrey got vague impressions of dark brown hair,
similar to Melody's rather than Venice's platinum blond, and the
exquisite moderately-curved body of a swimsuit model, but it was the
eyes that captured him.

Geoffrey
knew that blue eyes were always striking when they appeared along
with dark hair and dark skin, but this was more than just that. This
girl had an exotic slant to her eyes that he'd never seen anywhere
else before and the effect was enchanting in a way that he hadn't
known was possible.

"What
are you looking at?"

"I
didn't know that you could shift forms. I guess it makes sense
otherwise you wouldn't be able to conceal your true nature for more
than fifteen seconds, but I never even considered the possibility."

"Yeah,
whatever. Put that thing down and find me some shoes."

Geoffrey
looked around. "Where exactly do you expect me to find shoes in
here?"

"Take
them off of one of the dead women. One of them is bound to be my
size. Look for a women's seven and find some kind of coat for
yourself while you're at it. It's cold out there and we have a long
walk back to the hotel."

"I'm
not going to loot the dead."

"Yes,
you are. I killed all of them to get you out of here. I did my part
and now you're going to do yours. Besides, I'm the one with the
sword, not you. And don't even think of trying to grab a weapon from
one of the corpses. I'll be half a step behind you and if you even
look like you're going for a weapon I'll slice you into multiple
pieces."

The
girl held up the sword to punctuate her threat. Geoffrey wanted to
attack her, but despite the blood trickling down her side he was
pretty sure that she was plenty fast enough to kill him with his
sword before he'd be able to close with her. He needed a distraction.

"You
already know my name; it would only be polite to introduce yourself."

Geoffrey
reevaluated the balance of power between them. The girl was starting
to look pale, she must have lost more blood even than he'd realized.
If he could keep her talking for a few more minutes and if their
destination was far enough away, there was a good chance that she'd
pass out before they even arrived.

She
obviously wanted to bite his head off, but she swallowed down at
least a portion of her rage. "My name is Jasmin, and if you
don't get a move on we're both as good as dead. More vampires could
be gathering on the other side of that door even as we speak."

Geoffrey
shook his head. "There isn't anyone else out there yet, I'd be
able to sense them."

The
point of her sword drooped slightly, and Geoffrey moved up his
timetable by a few minutes. She probably wasn't going to make it out
onto the street before collapsing. Geoffrey considered stalling some
more, but he didn't want to push her too hard. Instead he set down
the storage device and started towards the nearest batch of corpses.

Jasmin
pivoted in place, keeping the point of her sword aimed at him until a
phone resting on the table next to her started ringing. She picked it
up and answered it without taking her eyes off of him.

"Yeah,
I survived. Are you just calling with more bad news?"

A
look of confusion crossed her face and then she tossed the phone in
Geoffrey's direction.

"She
wants to talk to you."

The
handcuffs around his wrist nearly made him miss the phone, but he
snagged it out of the air at the last second and held it up to his
ear.

"Hello,
who am I talking to?"

"Hi,
Geoffrey. You don't know me, but my name is Rachel and you're going
to listen to me very carefully. I know that you're thinking about
getting away from Jasmin right now. You figure that you can wait just
a little longer until she's lost a bit more blood and then you can
kill her and make your escape."

"I
don't know what you're talking about."

The
lie came out as a reflex, while Geoffrey looked around the room in an
effort to figure out which camera Rachel was using to monitor him.
Rachel laughed.

"Yes,
you do, but you're not going to hurt Jasmin."

"I'm
not? Is this the part where you tell me that if anything happens to
her you'll hunt me down and kill me?"

"Nope,
this is the part where I tell you that you're going to help her.
You're going to do everything in your power to keep Jasmin alive and
get her back to the address I'll be texting you in a couple of
minutes."

"Why
would I do that?"

"Because
Melody isn't dead, and I know where to find her. If you do exactly as
I say then I'll tell you where she is. If you let Jasmin die then
you'll never see Melody again."

Geoffrey's
throat had gone dry between one heartbeat and the next. It took real
effort to force words past a tongue that didn't seem to work quite
right anymore.

"You're
bluffing. The fact that you even know Melody's name just means that
you're working for Imastious. He's the only one who has had a chance
to skim off those memories. I should kill Jasmin right now just to
spite you and him both."

Jasmin
bristled and raised her sword as though she was going to make him
regret that particular threat, but something made her think better of
that course of action.

"I'm
not working for Imastious, Geoffrey. In fact, I hate him almost as
much as you do. The only difference is that you hate him for his past
while I hate him for his future."

"What
does that even mean?"

There
was silence on the other end of the line for several seconds and then
Rachel sighed. "It means that when the time comes I'm going to
help you and Jasmin kill him, but I'm the one who decides when that
happens, not you."

"All
I've heard so far is a lot of pretty words. You still haven't given
me anything solid enough to make me think this is anything more than
just an especially convoluted plot on Imastious' part."

"It's
true, when your worst enemy has raped your mind, stealing everything
you know, it makes it hard for me to prove myself to you with
anything you know, so I'm going to give you your proof in the form of
something you don't know."

Geoffrey
opened his mouth to tell her she was an idiot, but she talked right
over top of him.

"Lucy.
That's the name of the girl that Melody reminded you of, the name of
the girl from your past life, from the time before you lost your
memory."