Chapter 5
Becca and I chatted for a long time about where we came from, who we were, and how we were taken. We talked so long that I started to worry about her friend, Mackenzie. The upside was that we’d been gone long enough for David and Clayton to notice, and that meant hunters were already looking for us. I hated that my own stupidity and jealousy had left me alone and off-guard. I’d practically begged to be taken by naively wandering off on my own. David and Clayton had probably been happy to be rid of me, the fifth wheel of the group.
Before dating had become a focus of their lives, we’d been inseparable. I should have known it was inevitable that I’d be the one who didn’t fit in the group anymore. It was gut wrenching how easily David had chosen flirting with someone new over our lifelong friendship. I wondered if he’d ever thought we were family, or if that was just forced on him too.
I mentally slapped myself out of my self-pity and started thinking about the monsters instead. They could have killed us or infected us on the spot. That was unless we were being given to a master, as a gift or maybe food. Hopefully the master was old enough that he couldn’t pretend to be human anymore. I shuddered, and bile rose in my mouth.
The ancient ones; the oldest of the vampires; had thin, papery skin stretched over their skulls and their teeth were so prominent that they appeared lipless. Their eyes burned like coal in braziers and their hair receded to mere tufts at their temples and ears. The illustrations in our textbooks, of the few ancient ones the hunters had been able to capture, were horrific and nightmare inducing. The textbooks said that masters that old were almost impossible to catch or kill; especially since they retreated from humanity.
If the master still needed to eat, where were they getting their food? The thought made me nauseated as I leaned my forehead against the wall to cool off and change my thought process. Hunters and vampires killed each other, but we tried to keep it civilized. We knew the consequences of war for the human world.
If the vampires that took us (if they were vampires and not organ thieves after all) could fly; they had access to hundreds of years of wealth and the toys that came with them. I had done some research on the geography of the California coast and most likely we’d been taken because we were convenient. The pitting I felt in the stone of the walls could be from proximity to the ocean; where salt spray and ocean storms would have broken the stone down faster than in drier locations.
“Becca, Becca, how is Mackenzie doing?” I called out, becoming more alarmed that she still wasn’t awake.
“Her breathing is shallow and uneven. I can touch her face; I even pinched her arm! She didn’t wake up or even make a sound.” That one statement turned my blood to ice in my veins. If they hadn’t bitten us to put us under, then we’d been “glamoured” or charmed to knock us out, which meant that the vampires that took us had gotten inside our heads.
My shields hadn’t been enough to protect me. I wasn’t surprised, but I was still ashamed of my weakness. Perhaps Dominique had been wrong about my ‘raw talent,’ as she’d called it. Maybe I was in a cell about to be drained of my blood by an impossibly terrifying predator; maybe that was just my fate. The vampire that killed my mother and father hadn’t bothered to kill me. Now, my destiny to die as fang-feed had caught up to me.
For a moment, I’d imagined myself as “the girl who lived”. Now, I just felt stupid. My lip slid between my teeth to stop me from biting my fingernails, which would be the next thing in my mouth if I couldn’t come up with some sort of solution. I might not have been much of an expert, but I was the closest thing Becca and the still-unconscious Mackenzie had to a hunter.
“Becca, slap her. Hard,” I ordered. “Hit her as hard as you dare with your open hand. We’re running out of time, and we need her awake.”
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
“Really? What chance do we have to get her out of here, if she’s still unconscious?”
“You think beating her up will help us get her out?”
“I think getting her awake gives us a chance to fight together, or at least negotiate for our lives. Right now, she is dead weight we can’t carry and she can’t argue for her freedom if she’s unconscious.” I didn’t think vampires had a parlay system, but I was willing to bet if we were all awake, we’d stay together; whereas if Mackenzie was still asleep, they’d take her first, because she’d be easier for them to feed on.
Distantly, I heard the familiar slap of an open palm against skin, and another, and a third. Becca was screaming at Mackenzie and slapping her again, and again; almost hysterical as she begged her friend to wake.
“Becca, stop!” I shouted down the hall. I repeated myself, and the only sound I heard was her sobbing. “I’m sorry Becca. You tried.” There was a long silence, and I wondered if I’d lost my only friend in the darkness.
“Caroline?” Becca’s hoarse voice sounded like she’d been crying for days.
“I’m here, Becca.”
“She isn’t awake, but she moved. Oh, my God, she moved!” I didn’t have the heart to tell her what I feared. Maybe the vampire that had put her under was awake, which meant it was night, or nearly so. My heart sank! We’d been here at least a full day by then with no hunters showing up to save us. Worse; if the vampires had been sleeping, it wouldn’t be long now before we had company. I’d considered why we were still alive and unmarked, but I hadn’t figured out what came next.
I felt my way back to the side wall using the torch, felt around until I felt the clip that locked it in place and lifted it out of the holder. I sat in a crouch with my back against the far wall and my butt resting on my heels. This way I could spring up and launch the torch at the face of the first blood sucker through the door.
I knew that I couldn’t fight, but maybe I could make them mad enough to kill me fast. I no longer remembered the details of my parents’ deaths; my mind hadn’t wanted to hold most of the images even when I was young. Time had been my sweetest friend and stolen the remaining images from me over the years. However, I would never lose the terror and soul-numbing hate that filled me at the thought of seeing another vampire. I tried to focus on the things Signora Borgia and Professor Eldritch had been teaching my Anthropology and Mythology of Vampires class. Their energy came from living blood, but only the very strongest could stay awake during daylight hours. Their psychic powers were varied; just like humans. There were some who had no mental powers to draw upon, just like some couldn’t fly, and others had every imaginable power.
Obviously, we were dealing with one or maybe several that could get inside our heads and glamour us. Poor Mackenzie was weak-willed enough or had a master vampire strong enough to completely roll her. In the books, people like her were called Renfields, after Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. These were humans who could no longer think for themselves; sleeping when their master slept and doing their bidding without question.
If we’d been brought here at the same time, then maybe I was strong enough to fight it off for at least a little while. I’d been awake for a long time ; it made sense that we’d been sitting down here all day. My stomach would attest to that; if nothing else. Becca had awaken on her own several hours after me. I was about to call out to her and check in on Mackenzie when I heard a scream from that end of the corridor.
“Becca! Becca answer me!” I screamed into the darkness; pressing my face against the bars desperately wishing I could conjure a light in the darkness. Then, as though I’d created it with my mind, a tiny flare of light floated and bobbed in the far distance. As tiny as it was; it was blinding after the hours of darkness and my eyes burned behind my eyelids as I blinked and squeezed them tightly shut, trying to acclimate to the change.
“Caroline!” Becca screamed, her voice breaking off into a choking sound. The light flickered in the place where I imagined her door would be.
“Becca!” She didn’t answer. I gripped the ancient, iron torch tighter and fell back from the door to the side opposite the hinges. The silence was thick enough to touch as my palms grew wet and slick against the metal . I waited to befall the same fate as Becca and her friend.
The seconds ticked on; my thighs and arms began to cramp from the position I was holding. I strained to stay still and not give away my position, as I realized the light outside my door was growing brighter. I rolled my shoulders and shifted my weight from the balls of one foot to the other; ready to spring. My scant training might be enough despite aching muscles and lack of food to draw blood when I swung.