Chapter 9
Cyril’s Compound, Tetartos Realm
Sam had just started coming around again only to be faced with more tests and yet another injection.
They never allowed her to gain enough lucidity to get free of the damned metal cuffs, and even if she was able, she was sure they’d be on her in a second. She fought the feeling of helplessness. Beat it back, unwilling to let it take her down. She would not end up like the others, mere shells laid out on cold metal tables with dead eyes.
She would bide her time and refused to think of what more she would have to endure before an opportunity to escape presented itself. Could she bear any more? She would have to if she wanted to escape and kill the head guy. She’d started to refer to him as the Nazi Fuck. If it was the last thing she did, she would find a way to take him out along with Rabid Bitch, the redhead that liked to flash fang every time she saw her. Sam didn’t care how superior their strengths were, she would find a way out of there.
She couldn’t figure out their end game. Why the experiments? What were they testing… creating? The only thing she could come up with was it had something to do with reproduction, which churned her stomach into knots.
He’d injected them all with something. Looking to her left, the other woman oozed defeat, rarely calling out in anguish when the tests turned painful, and some seemed to be agonizing. She’d seen the “doctors” break bones or cut into skin, then type away at keyboards. She’d heard tight groans but rarely any screams. The young blonde on the table not too far from hers was going through that treatment while Sam watched, unable to do anything for the woman. Sam couldn’t tell how old the girl was, not from her vantage point, strapped flat to a metal gurney like the rest of them.
Sam knew that was her fate, soon… if she didn’t focus on escaping. There was no way of knowing how long the other captives had been here. They were all drugged and kept away from each other. One time Sam had awoken, tried to get up, fallen from her cot, and crawled to the bars. She had desperately tried to talk to the other prisoners to find out what they knew. She’d attempted calling to the cell on the diagonal from hers only to be greeted by stark silence. Moments later, a guard had come, hauled her ass back to the cot, and injected her again.
Sam had been moved between this metal examination area and her small metal cell for who knew how long… days… She focused on the details of the room even though it was like looking through a fog. Her mind fixated on anything she gazed at too long. Damn drugs. She struggled to turn her neck to study the others and their tormentors, attempting to take in any detail she could. She searched for anything that would aid her when she escaped, but nothing seemed useful.
The power she had with metal only worked if she could focus, an ability she’d grown up hiding at her parents urging. They’d convinced her she was to never show the talent or she’d be taken from them. Though her skills were paltry in comparison to the powers of her abductors, she’d use them to the best of her ability if she could just get the drugs out of her system.
She closed her eyes, willing herself to focus more closely. She would not give up. Something had to be useful. She’d been in and out of consciousness several times. The stench of chemicals wasn’t as pronounced as it once was. The thought that she was getting used to it scared her.
Sam did her best to withhold a reaction as Nazi Fuck put one overly warm hand on her abdomen. She tried to appear undisturbed, but his touch felt like acid on her skin. She loathed him so much. The things he’d done to her along with the things he’d ordered… Her jaw clenched so tight she thought it might break but didn’t utter a sound.
Never had she felt such hatred for anyone in her life. The desire to kill the bastard was a sickness eating away at her from the inside. She was sure her body shook with the need to do him harm. As much as she tried to hold back her reaction, she had to remind herself not to attempt anything rash. She was weakened by the drugs, had no weapon, and was outnumbered even if she did break free. She had to endure, for now.
Attempting to move into her mind, she focused on the shine reflecting off the metal ceiling, swallowing to keep the bile at bay. The clicking as he typed on a laptop sitting high on a rolling rack beside him seemed more like nails on a chalkboard in the relative quiet of the room. The Nazi rarely spoke. None of them did.
Only once had she felt that feminine presence in her head, prompting her for answers. She could only hope that in this crazy world that voice was someone, or something, that really wanted to help her. Not some mind game coming from the evil bastards surrounding her.
She forced herself deeper inside her own mind… her only sanctuary. Willing the voice to come to her again, to give her hope that she wasn’t alone, that someone other than her parents was looking for her, trying to help her. Even if her coworkers or friends filed a missing persons report, what could the police do about vampires? It was all so unreal.
She was forced back to her present situation on the metal table by the feeling of warmth making its way through her veins. They’d dosed her again. She forced herself to fight the effects. Maybe with practice she could learn to combat the drugs. As a haze entered her sight and her tense muscles started to relax against her will, she remembered what happened the third time she regained consciousness. It was something she’d rather forget, but her mind kept replaying the memories… She’d felt the true reality of her nightmare in those moments.
She woke to Nazi Fuck and Vampire Bitch staring down at her.
She was laid out naked on a metal table in a cold, sterile, metal room. It was a kind of sick taunt that metal was the one thing she had power over, but with the drugs and her roiling emotions, she couldn’t focus that power. This room was smaller than the previous one, where several women had been laid out and attached to machines.
She realized in her haze that she was positioned differently than before. Instead of being flat like the other times she’d awoken, her legs were in stirrups, her ankles attached securely with straps. She tried to move and free herself, but her body was weak, and she was too drugged to do anything.
The anxiety of her situation beat at her. She was open and vulnerable, and sweat started beading on her skin. The drugs kept her in a semiconscious state, feeling like every movement was made through water, every noise distorted. All she saw, through the drugged fog of her mind, were wide shoulders, piercing eyes and dark, severely short hair.
She wanted to plead for help, but crazed monsters of myth weren’t likely to help her. The look in their eyes made that point more than all the horror movies she’d ever seen.
Still, she wanted to know why they were doing this, or maybe she just hoped to delay her fate. “What do you want with me?” Her voice sounded garbled in her own ears.
The Nazi cocked his head to the right and turned toward Vamp Bitch, completely ignoring her.
“DNA tests all confirm the gene is there. Have the males fill her with semen to start the process. I have work to do in the labs. Do not do any damage until her body is able to regenerate.” Nothing he said made sense to her, other than to freak her the fuck out. “Males?” As in plural? “Semen?” And after he’d issued those orders to the Bitch, he hadn’t even bothered to spare her a glance, just exited through a sliding door.
Her breathing escalated.
The two huge men she’d seen upon arriving came through the door. They seemed different this time. One had slightly long almost white hair, while the other was darker. Both had pale silver eyes that appeared glazed and held a hint of hatred directed in the redhead’s direction. Were they drugged as well? They seemed to be breathing as hard as she was.
It was like a movie or a nightmare… All she could think was that they were going to rape her and she couldn’t do anything about it. Why? To impregnate her? That thought only accelerated her breathing more.
The men pulled off their clothing and one bent as if to kiss her neck or maybe bite her, because she saw fang and attempted to flinch away. She fought against the restraints when the Rabid Bitch stopped him. “No venom.” Sam had no clue what that meant, but it seemed to agitate the dark-haired male. They were both breathing hard, but the dark-haired one actually growled at the Vamp Bitch, which only made the crazy woman laugh.
“No pleasure for her,” Vamp Bitch sneered.
The angry glare the dark-haired guy sent the Vamp’s way wasn’t lost in Sam’s drugged stupor. Not that his obvious derision for the bitch mattered.
It hadn’t saved her from her fate.
She tried to fight the memories, looking up into the light above her head. The nightmare kept repeating over and again in her mind as the drug worked to pull her into oblivion. They’d taken her in every way possible while the bitch had taunted her. While the redhead had done things to them that the men hadn’t liked.
Just as she’d done things to Sam that made her want to vomit.
She was spinning.
The bitch had threatened them, told the men to make it painful, but something had been wrong.
She hated herself and clenched her eyes shut at the memory of her body betraying her during that nightmare. They’d done something to her, because it hadn’t hurt, it had somehow felt good, and that reaction made her stomach pitch.
She swore that one of the men… beings, had talked in her head. She’d either gone insane or he’d been telling her not to let the Vamp bitch win, coaching her through every second of her violation. She shook her head as angry tears spilled from her eyes. She’d actually done as the male voice instructed like some weak woman.
She closed her eyes tight and felt blessed blackness start to take her under.
Her last thought was of how slowly she wanted to kill that Vamp bitch, because her sick laughter would fill Sam’s nightmares forever if she didn’t.
*****
Cyril hated working with idiots. He and Elizabeth had left the labs, and now the sadistic bitch was communicating mentally with her contact in Hell Realm. It seemed the Tria’s demon-possessed had been able to track the Guardian, Urian, as promised, but hadn’t injected the bastard with the serum he’d created. This was what he got for working with demons. Complete incompetence.
Elizabeth spoke out loud. “Do you have anything else you want from them? I told them to continue the search and add more possessed. This time use stealth, though I’m not sure that they have the higher brain function to pull that off. The jackoffs only sent three. That would have been nothing considering Urian’s ability to teleport…” Her eyes glittered, probably anticipating the punishment she’d be allowed to dole out to those idiots. They would need to feel the force of his annoyance, and she knew it.
Elizabeth averted her attention to the broken female lying at their feet while she awaited his response. The female twitched under the boot Elizabeth poked her with. The blonde had been intended as payment for the job the demons failed to complete.
He clenched his fists at his sides. “No, I’ve changed my mind. They’ve lost any hint of surprise they had, and I don’t want my serum to get in the hands of the Guardians. There will be no payment, and I expect them to return the vial.” He detested having his time wasted. “And, Elizabeth, make sure the Tria understand my disappointment.” His voice came out just as menacing as he’d hoped, and he watched her eyes light with sadistic expectation. Elizabeth truly loved making others’ lives painful. He’d leave her to her work.
He exited the teleport area of his compound. He had few sections designated for secreting in and out of the mountain. Those were monitored constantly, and he was confident that the metal-laced walls in the rest of the compound would prevent anyone teleporting directly inside. He saw his contorted form in the sheen of the door as he moved through and worked his way down the long dark tunnel back to his lab. He’d go through his files on the test subjects and set aside his plans for the Guardians for later. The only reason he’d attempted to capture Urian at this point was the Tria’s insistence they could track him.
He heard screams coming from the room he just vacated and shook his head at Elizabeth’s behavior. It didn’t matter that she tortured the Mageia female. The mortal was only useful as payment to the Tria; the blonde’s mind had been ruined long ago. He just hoped Elizabeth showed some intelligence by not killing her. To use her as payment they could only kill her at the time they planned to send her soul to Hell. Elizabeth knew he did not enjoy wasting resources.
Elizabeth was born in the breeding labs, like himself. Only he was born to a God while she was born of two first-generation Aletheia. Yet, somehow, she had acquired exceptional mental capabilities, one being her rare ability to contact those in other Realms. A power he’d been unable to duplicate or find within another. There were no other options but to keep her if he wanted to continue to work with the other Realms.
The problem was that Elizabeth was becoming increasingly unstable. He exhaled deeply. Maybe if he found her a keeper? He’d need to think on it. At the moment he was more interested in his latest test subject. Something about the female niggled at the back of his mind. Was she the key he’d been searching for?