Enduring Service (4 page)

Daniel nodded his reply, and Dixon nearly lost his temper. His face reddened and his facial expression became hardened. “You don’t think she’s even coming home tonight?”

Raymond looked Dixon square in the eyes. “She was pretty upset.”

“I want to know what upset her,” Dixon demanded. His hands balled into fists.

“No.”

“I’m not leaving until you tell me what it is.” Dixon sat straighter, and his chest puffed out, as he stood his ground. Vampire or not, good friend or not, Raymond was going to tell him, Dixon would make sure of that.

A moment of silence passed and then Dixon stood, his chair tumbling to the floor. With his palms now flat against the green felt of the table, he leaned in and yelled at Raymond. “Tell me!”

Raymond took a moment before answering. He looked at the others around the table. “Anyone else who wants to know what upset Sulie, and incur her wrath once she finds out, can stay. Anyone else should leave.”

The room cleared like someone had yelled free lunch. Dixon picked up his chair and sat down.

“You’ve heard us talk of the Vampire Council before,” Raymond began once they were alone in the room.

Dixon nodded. “They are the ruling party of Vampires, or some sort.” Overall, he didn’t understand what the Council did. He only knew they had denied his request for turning when he announced he wanted to retire from the Colony. The vampires remained tight–lipped on the subject, so it surprised him that Raymond wanted to talk about them. Of course, Raymond planned to wipe his memory the second he officially retired, so Dixon figured it didn’t matter at this point.

“Let’s just say this information is above your pay grade.” Raymond cleared his throat and continued. “The Council offers services to vampires. Blood service, for example.”

Dixon didn’t want a history lesson. “I know that,” he said. “You get blood from Uncle Sam, so you don’t need the Council. What does this have to do with…?”

Raymond held out his hand and stopped him. “We do need them. They keep track of family lines and ensure that our numbers remain small. I have a seat on the American Council board because I’m the coven master of our group.”

Dixon’s jaw tightened as the anticipation was killing him. “So what? You want me to bow? Just get to Sulie.”

Raymond leaned closer to the table, closing the gap between the two men. “As coven master, and the head of Sulie’s and my family, I can ask for certain services. My sister has asked to be placed in the Verheiratet Schlange, and I have started the process.”

Whatever it was, it sounded terrible. “What does that mean?”

“Sulie has many desirable qualities, and the Council has asked for her placement for a long time now.”

Dixon’s heart pounded; his throat became dry in anticipation. “And?”

Looking directly at Dixon, Raymond explained. “She asked me to secure an arranged marriage for her.”

Dixon glanced away as he straightened in his chair. He had never thought of her in any romantic relationship — probably because, as far as he could remember, she had never been in one. Nodding slowly he took a deep breath. “I never knew she wanted… that she even thought about getting married.”

“She has for a long time now.”

Dixon raked his fingers through his whitened hair. “It’s news to me.”

“I’m sure many eligible candidates will present themselves shortly.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Dixon closed his eyes and let the news sink in. Sulie had never mentioned any of this to him before. Why would she now be so hell–bent to be married? He was sure she would have said something to him. He concentrated on Raymond’s words, “many eligible candidates.” Of course, there would be. Sulie was charming, witty, scholarly… beautiful. The list was endless. She would belong to someone else. She would belong to a vampire, the way it was meant to be. He fought back the urge to scream.

“She’ll probably be married within a few months,” Raymond said.

Dixon opened his eyes and looked over to Raymond. “A few months… that’s quick.” He noticed Raymond studying him. “What?”

“Your heart rate is elevated. Are you anxious about something?”

Noticing his now sweaty palms, Dixon wiped them onto his pant legs. His throat felt dry. “I’m fine,” he said, clearing his throat and desperately trying to think of any technical journal, but none came forth.

Raymond slowly nodded. “We need to schedule the removal of your mental subroutine and your mind wipe. I would appreciate it if you stayed with the team until we find my sister and bring her safely home.”

“Of course!” Dixon quickly said. He looked over to his friend of over thirty years. “Naturally, I’ll stay and help find her. Sulie is important. She… means the world to me,” Dixon added, his voice cracking.

“I appreciate the help,” Raymond said as he placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Especially since once you retire, and I have wiped your mind, you won’t care if she’s found or not. You won’t remember anything about her.”

Dixon felt a lump in his throat. Needing to do something, or just maybe wanting the conversation to end, Dixon stood and walked towards the door. He could hear his heart pounding in his chest. How could he ever forget his Sulie?

Sulie woke to darkness and pain. Her head throbbed and she wondered where they had taken her. She tried to sit up, but found her hands tied behind her back. Thinking back to the last thing she remembered, and remembering the fake pregnancy, her heart sank. A lump grew in her throat as she realized she had been kidnapped.

Why would anyone want to kidnap her? Had they planned to kill her? She reminded herself that she had been in tight situations before, although, typically with weapons and her team. Plus, she usually squared off with humans. Kidnapping was a new issue for her. She took a calming breath and thought back to her training. Since she was bound, blindfolded and gagged, what could she feel, hear or smell? She took some deep breaths and focused.

She lay on a hard surface that felt like a thinly carpeted floor. Vibrations from the floor pulsed through her body. The van, she thought. They transported her in the Honda Odyssey. A slight panic overtook her as she realized a grim possibility. She could be killed, her dust scattering in the wind. Her family would never be able to find her. She squashed the fear as she heard the van’s blinkers kick in and she concentrated on the motion of the van. Left turn. Straight. Another left turn. She lay still, trying to memorize the pattern.

Her skin tingled and she took a deep sniff into the air. Vampires held her, not humans. Yes, she detected more than one vampire in this van. Damn. Humans she could handle with ease; vampires on the other hand were harder to subdue. Plus, they outnumbered her. She wished she were armed, but she never wore her weapons to work. They were safely stored in her car while she worked at the hospital, along with her syringes of human blood to eat. Even her medical bag, with the extra blood, was lost to her.

Her body bounced up and down due to the bumpy road. She tugged at the chains wrapped around her wrists and ankles. She was not surprised to find her super strength no match for the tiny rungs of what she guessed to be silver chains. Thankfully, her long sleeves and pant legs protected her from being burned.

A cold chill ran up her spine. Her kidnappers knew her to be immortal. Somehow, they knew her. They had even called her by her real name and not her doctor alias.

The situation grew worse and worse.

She heard the voice of a vampire talking near her. Did they know she was awake? Probably not. She concentrated on what the mystery man was saying, but her mind felt fuzzy from the blow she had taken to her head. His voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. It didn’t sound like the voice of the vamp who had posed as the father.

The vamp said something about it getting late. Late? How long was she out? She could feel a wetness on her cheek, so obviously she had bled from her injury. She knew the wound had healed itself shut, but she still felt the sting of a headache, even if she had been unconscious for hours.

She focused on listening and counted the different voices she could hear. There were at least three males and one female in the van. She smelled no remnants of human food, or even human body odor, but she could smell human blood. They must have recently eaten since she couldn’t detect any humans present.

She thought about the layout of the car. At most, it held eight passengers. With the last row of seats down, the car would only seat five, unless someone sat next to her in the back.

The ride was a long one. She focused on the movement of the car. Right turn. Straight for a long time. Left turn.

With her hands tied, Sulie tried to reach her front pocket where she had put her phone in the haste to get to the van. She moved slowly so no one would notice the movements. Disappointment hit her as she realized her pocket held no phone. It had either been removed, or it fell out at some point. She assumed it was the former rather than the latter.

The car stopped abruptly when they reached their destination. Sulie considered her chances of attacking the group, or even of just running away, but figured she wouldn’t get far thanks to the sliver chains. She heard the sliding doors open, as well as the driver and passenger doors. Their footsteps on a dirt path and the clank of the back door handle allowed her to track their movements. The back door opened. Before the swooshing sound had come to a halt, two vamps grabbed her arms and removed her from the car. Still blindfolded and chained at the ankles, she stumbled as they pulled her from the van and dragged across a stone walkway, her toes catching on the larger rocks.

Judging by the way the two vamps held her, Sulie could tell they were big. Overall, she never worried too much about size, but she remained chained and at a disadvantage. Listening carefully, she realized the other vamps did not follow. It was now two against one. Her odds had improved. If her chains were removed, one of the vampires, if not both, would likely be dead by now.

A gagging stench hung in the air and Sulie figured she had either been taken to a farm or an incredibly disgusting subway. The opening of a lock is what she heard next, followed by creaking of doors being opened. Instantly, she smelled dust. Her body jiggled as they led her down a long flight of stairs. She heard the digital sound of another lock being opened and then she was thrown onto a bed where her head hit against the headboard, irritating the injury she already had. The mattress spring creaked as she tried to sit up.

The footsteps of one of the vampires warned her of his approach. He ripped the blindfold off, allowing her to see. The dark room gave her eyes no issues in adjusting. She could see the vamps now, which helped to level the playing field. Overall, they weren’t that large as vampires go. But, they stood taller than her, and brawnier too. She wasn’t surprised. No one ever hired weaklings to be their muscle.

The vamp closest to her, the fake father from the van, had the hilt of a knife sticking out of his belt. The poor bastard had obviously never been told not to keep his weapons in plain sight unless they’re in his hand. The second vamp moved already halfway out of the room and was looking around. Perhaps eager to go, or maybe keeping watch, she wasn’t sure.

When the vamp closest to her leaned in, Sulie noticed the lust in his eyes. Her breath caught as she felt her body nearly tremble with fear. She reminded herself to breathe, but recoiled in disgust at the sight of the vampire. She refused to play the damsel in distress. She swore to herself he’d be a dead man if he touched her.

God, she prayed they wouldn’t violate her. She didn’t have much maneuverability on the bed, no weapons, and remained basically powerless.

The guard paused mere inches from her face and his breath reeked of blood. She sized up his large frame and mentally went through half a dozen combat moves she could do if still tied up. He moved his head to her side and inhaled deeply to take in the scent of her hair. She turned her head to move away from him.

She felt the wetness of his lips as his tongue licked her earlobe. If she had not been gagged, she might have thrown up. A chill ran down her spine as she medically read the man from his touch. She did her best to block out his heightened sexual state from her mind, especially since enough evidence existed in this room without the need of her special ability — mainly his hand which now groped her breast.

“What are you doing, Millard?” the vamp from the hallway asked. “Sulie needs time for her mind to heal.”

Sulie wondered if the vamp referred to her head wound or something else. She watched as Millard rolled his eyes. “She’s fine,” he said, continuing to grope her.

“Please stop, Millard. Let’s go,” the second guard in the hallway insisted. Sulie watched as the vamp glared at her attacker impatiently. Noticing that Millard continued his assault, the second guard stepped a few feet into the room and approached him again.

Millard stopped the fondling of her breasts and growled, obviously unhappy with the turn of events. “She’s already used goods, Julian. It’s not like I’m going to damage her in any way.”

Julian’s nostrils flared as he forced Millard’s hands off her. “Damn it. It’s Sulie. Please, let her be,” he pleaded. “Just take the chains off and get her as comfortable as you can. I have a feeling she’ll be here a while.”

Sulie studied the vamp named Julian. Somehow, somewhere, he knew her. The jerk Millard knew her too, and yet she had no clue from where. Not that it mattered. Kidnappers, rapists… all scum and worthless in her opinion.

When Millard turned back around, he stared at Sulie. His blackened eyes surveyed her body. Next his hands sought out her thighs. “She’s fair game right now.”

Her eyes quickly went to Julian as he crossed the room and forced the vamp off her. “Don’t be stupid. She’s at her base age,” he criticized. “Besides, if you lay one hand on her you know there will be consequences.”

Sulie ping–ponged her focus from one vamp to the other as they squared off. She wondered what the consequences were and if they involved death for them — or even for her. After a brief moment, she watched as Millard removed a small key from his pocket and undid the tiny silver lock at her wrists. She wasn’t sure why she had somewhat of an ally in Julian. She didn’t like to be in anyone’s debt, but she appreciated the help this time.

Millard tugged the chains from her wrists with a small piece of cloth he had pocketed in the palm of his hands. The action gave her some newly found freedom, and it was time to move. Millard stayed focused on not touching the silver chains, and was not watching Sulie. Even though her feet remained bound, Sulie grabbed the knife from its not–too–hidden hiding place. Millard dropped the swatch of fabric and the chain it held and stared at her. Before he could restrain her, she found Millard’s jugular vein, and sliced it open. Purplish blood sprayed from the gash and colored the walls, the bed, and her.

Millard’s body flailed. Even with tied hands, she held him up to her body like a shield, making sure to pull on the hair at the nape of the vamp’s neck to help sever the head from the vamp’s body.

Julian now deserved some attention. Grasping the moist blade of the knife, she flicked her wrist and sent the weapon soaring through the air, only to miss its target. The blade lodged soundly in Julian’s shoulder just as Millard’s hair turned white, his skin wrinkled and aged, and finally his body turned to dust. The remains didn’t even have time to settle on the sheets before she got off the bed and ran to the door. But the chains on her feet prevented her attack from being successful. She fell to the floor, never making her way to Julian. She cursed as she watched him secure the door and run down the hallway, taking her only weapon with him.

Sulie allowed her body to slump to the floor as she heard the outer door also lock in place. She would have preferred to spare one of their lives, temporarily, so she could get some answers. But now all she had were questions and a mess in the center of the room. She kicked the dust as she shuffled back to the bed, finding the key Millard had dropped. She used the bed cover against her skin to remove the offensive chains. Her gag was the last to go.

Sulie didn’t recognize either of the vampires. The names Millard and Julian didn’t ring any bells either, although she thought she had known someone named Julian when she was a child. Of course, it wasn’t like she knew every vampire in the Washington D.C. area, but she had hoped she would recognize them and possibly get some clue about what the hell was going on. She suspected they were just pawns in someone else’s scheme, with no real power. She’d have to wait to see who was in charge.

*******

Sulie surveyed the small room which appeared to be an old wine cellar, sans wine. Storage shelves, with cubbies to cradle wine bottles, leaned against the walls. Now empty, cobwebs took the place of the wine. If Sulie had been human, the room would have been too chilly for her comfort, but as a vampire she was naturally cold and didn’t mind.

She looked around and saw little to serve as a weapon to defend herself. There was the bed she sat on, a wooden chair in the corner of the room, a dusty carpet that lay on an even dustier floor, a tiny table near the door, and not much more.

Her watch indicated that hours had passed since her abduction at the hospital. It was now late into the night. She got off the bed and walked to the small window that had no sunlight shining through. She figured the bars across the window were silver, but still she had to test them. It would be stupid to assume the window was useless to her. She gently touched one of the bars with the back of her hand and pulled away immediately. Singed flesh marked the spot where the bar had touched. So much for the window.

She walked over to the door and did the same, with the same results. Whoever her captors were, they wanted her to stay put. She now had to play the waiting game and see who revealed themselves. Hopefully she’d find out where she was and why she was taken. Even more to the point, she hoped to find a way out.