Savage, page 4
part #1 of The Healer Series
“If you bring her back, she will crush everyone in her way. Rhett, her brothers, and you. Every single one of us.”
“You don’t know that. You see the past. She told me so.”
“But I’ve seen the future, too!”
“And why should I trust that?” I bite out.
“I saw her falling in love with you long before you met. I got that one right.”
Tensing my grip, I take an angered breath. “I will find her, and you’re going to tell me everything you know.”
“Daniel, don’t do this. If you love her at all, you know what her family—including the hybrids—means to her. The person she was would never want you to unleash what she is on those she loves. Don’t do this.” Sarah grips my arm as she pleads. “You can spell everyone here to forget what they’ve heard today. They could just think she died, and they’d remember her as the sweet and innocent girl she was.”
“Get the fuck off of me!” I growl and push her away. “You really think I’d leave her? Like that’s even an option?” I ask in disbelief. Bending down slightly, my gaze meets hers. “That girl is my life now. If you loved her brother half as much as I love her, you’d get that.” She shakes her head and looks away. “How do I know this isn’t some revenge for her hurting your brother? I know you’re playing us and this shit today just proved it.” I stomp to Eileen and Flynn and push them. They shiver awake and jump, wide eyed.
“Shit, I hate that.” Flynn shakes his head. “Any way you could exclude us next time you freeze the room?”
“Call Cassia and Nick. Get Nick on intel. Find out where the doc has been.” I bark an order to him and turn back to Sarah. “I’m going to save Aldo. You can clean up this big fucking mess you’ve made with your bother and her brother. Good luck with that shit.”
“You said you’d spell Rhett back,” she reminds me.
“I don’t want to be spelled!” Rhett booms before storming out of the room.
Everyone is silent a moment. “You said you’d spell him back,” Sarah repeats again, quietly.
“Yeah, but I don’t keep promises to lying bitches.” With that, I signal Flynn and Eileen to grab Thomas. I may need him again. Neither Sarah, nor Thomas, protests as we barrel out the door. All of the kids in the yard stare at us in silence; I gather they all overheard our shouting inside. I pull out a cigarette and light it while they watch in silence.
Just keep it the fuck together, Daniel.
I’ve been awake for some time now. The dimly lit fluorescent lights above me hum in the silence. I’m chained to the table, my arms above my head, but at least I’m dressed in some sort of hospital gown with a sheet laid over me. Oddly enough, in these very brief moments of consciousness when I’m not being tortured, my mind no longer reaches out for the thoughts of my loved ones—for thoughts of Daniel. For that, in itself, is it’s own brand of torture. At first, in the rare waking moments of clarity, I prayed for Daniel to find me. I sobbed when my resolve would fold like wet cardboard and I allowed the worst thoughts to seep inside of me. I will never touch him again. I’ll never feel the power of him against me. After a while—I’m not sure how much of it was of my own volition, or if maybe the drugs and torture had muddled my brain into nothing but a mute fog—I locked those thoughts away. Only in my subconscious do brief images of Daniel and my loved ones appear.
When the door opens loudly, I don’t bother looking to see who it is. I can smell him. He wears some kind of cheap cologne, Old Spice, maybe?
“I have blood for you,” the doctor says as he comes into view, wheeling in some kind of machine with a computer screen on a cart, squeaking and rattling as he moves it. His brown eyes peer at me through his glasses perched halfway down the bridge of his nose. He’s a handsome man, although wicked, with dark hair and complexion. This is the first time he’s stood still in front of me, or hasn’t been torturing me long, enough to get a really good look at him.
“Is it the same blood laced with poison?” I hiss, my voice hoarse from my parched throat.
“We have to keep you weak.” It is laced.
“Why?” I practically sob. I’m so tired of this torture.
“You’ve become a valuable . . . asset to Xavier.”
Who the hell is Xavier?
The doctor must read my thoughts as they flit across my face. “He is the master of the nest here in Texas.”
Oh shit! I really am inside a nest.
“What does he want with me?”
“I don’t think he really knew what to do with you at first, but he certainly has a plan for you now.”
“Why hasn’t he come to speak with me?”
“Truthfully, he’s only been down here once to see you, not trusting himself in the presence of a female hybrid. You were, as they say, indisposed during his visit.”
Not trusting himself? He must mean my ability to attract men. It’s my greatest strength—so say Eileen and Daniel, anyway. It’s my insurance I will always be able to have blood by attracting men and feeding on them. A lot of good it’s done me so far.
“Besides. You are worth more as bait than sex.”
I stare at the doctor closely. Why does he look so familiar? I know absolutely nothing about him. Nothing about him has come to light in my subconscious, but maybe that’s because I’ve been drugged and haven’t been able to dream. “If you plan to use me to get to Daniel, I’ll kill myself first,” I warn him. I know Daniel is trying to find me, but I won’t let him find me if I think his life will be in jeopardy.
“I think you may change your mind about that,” he chuckles patronizingly. He then stabs a straw into the bag of blood in his hand and holds it to my mouth. On one side, I know he’s trying to poison me again. All the blood he’s given me thus far has been laced with something vile. It makes me ill and while the blood strengthens me, whatever it’s mixed with weakens me. But I drink it anyway. I have to. I’m so starved I’d make myself ill to have blood. Taking the straw in my mouth, I suck, depleting the bag in seconds. It’s nowhere near enough to satisfy or strengthen me, and the same familiar burn and tidal wave of nausea hits me immediately.
The doctor stares at me, and I’m about to ask him why when I hear the most heart-wrenching scream from next door. It’s the first thing I’ve heard outside of this room since I was brought here.
My gaze darts to his with a questioning look. “Another of our tests,” he smiles wickedly.
“You really get off on this torture thing, don’t you?” I wheeze.
“I am a man of science,” he says unapologetically.
“And a betrayer of your people,” I add.
He smirks condescendingly. “My people are stronger when they become like me.”
“So you chose this?”
“Yes, I did.” He pulls out a syringe filled with clear gel, setting it on the cart by the screen. When he pulls the sheet down covering me, I jerk, but my arms are restrained.
“I thought you said no more tests,” I hiss as he pulls up my gown exposing the lower half of my naked body.
“This isn’t a test. This is an ultra sound.” He turns back to the machine he’s wheeled in and plugs it in.
“An ultrasound? For what?” I shriek, but he doesn’t answer as he picks up some kind of long wand and rolls what looks like a condom over it. “What are you doing?” I pant as panic sets in. I’ve never had any kind of ultrasound, but the ones I’ve seen in movies and on television didn’t look like this.
“You’re going to need to relax for this,” he answers after a few seconds as he squeezes what looks like Vaseline over the wand.
“What?”
“This,” he points to the wand, “will be inserted inside of you. The more you tense, the more uncomfortable it will be. But one way or another, this will go inside of you.”
He may think he’s given me some kind of fair warning here, but instinctively, I tense, attempting to squeeze my legs together. The restraints around my ankles keep my thighs from touching. “Don’t!” I warn, but he only laughs. We both know I have no way to stop him.
“Why, little dove,” he tsks. “Don’t you want to see your baby?” He tilts his head and smirks, enjoying how I look as I feel like the world has just landed on me and crushed me.
Baby?
I’m pregnant?
I don’t remember being raped while I was here, but I’ve been unconscious a great deal. They could’ve done it . . . shit! Agony floods me and acts as its own poison, weakening my soul a little more. I did this to myself. I was so eager to get inside the nest. I’m so stupid. And now, they’ve done to me what they did to my mother. I’m carrying a man’s baby I don’t even know. Daniel! Oh God. What will he say? My heart literally shatters with this news. And my baby. My child. It’s doomed, and it’s all my fault. I did this. Accepting fault is excruciating; knowing you have no one but yourself to blame for causing so much pain and anguish to others. It’s worse than anything the doctor has done to me. I’d let him burn me a million times to escape this pain. Sobs break free from my chest as tears stream down my face.
“Oh, now, now, little dove.” The doctor pats my leg with his gloved hand. “Why so sad? Most women are ecstatic when they learn they are with child.”
My sobs immediately cease as I suck in one angry, ragged breath. “Who’s the father? Has he been paid already?” I growl. “Buddy of yours?”
The doctor chuckles as he wrenches one of my knees back, exposing me. “No, he hasn’t been paid, little dove. He doesn’t even know.”
I stare at him confused as I struggle to squeeze my legs together. “Was it a donor?” Did they inseminate me?
“We didn’t impregnate you. This baby was conceived between two sexually consenting adults.”
For once I’m thankful to be lying down, even if I am restrained; I’d surely have collapsed with his words if I were standing. Two consenting adults . . .
“What does that . . .” My mind lurches as realization dawns. “Daniel,” I whisper.
I can’t breathe. Is he suffocating me? Daniel. He’s saying the baby is Daniel’s. A brief moment of relief sets in as I realize this is Daniel’s child, not a rapist’s or a stranger’s. We made this baby, together. But the moment is short lived. Panic seizes me, and my mind runs wild. I’m pregnant with the child of the most powerful being in existence. This baby hasn’t even been born yet, and it’s already in danger.
“There it is,” the doctor says, and I blink back to reality. When my vision clears, I realize the doctor has inserted the wand inside me in the midst of my panic attack. It’s uncomfortable, mostly because I can’t stop myself from tensing at the intrusion. I look up and see the black and gray image on the screen.
“Let’s listen for the heart,” the doctor says and turns a knob. A banging sound, like someone pounding on aluminum, fills the room; fast and strong. “It has a good heartbeat.” He turns the knob and there is silence. Pointing to the screen he says, “The heart is right there.”
I stare blankly at the screen. That’s inside of me? A baby? My baby? I want to reach down and pat my belly. Tell my child it will be okay, but even if my hands weren’t restrained, I couldn’t say that. It would be a lie. Nothing is okay. This should be a special moment. One I’ll cherish forever. Instead, I’m discovering I’m pregnant with Daniel’s baby while I’m being held captive and tortured by a vampire nest. Then one of the reasons I never wanted children comes to mind —because this is the world they would have to live in: a world where they were hunted, and had to fear everything.
“I’d say you’re about six weeks.” He holds the wand still inserted inside of me with one hand and takes the syringe from the cart where he sat it earlier, using his teeth to remove the plastic cap from the needle.”
“What are you doing?” I wheeze as fear seizes me. I heard Xavier say no more experimenting on me because I’m too valuable now. I guess carrying Daniel’s baby makes me extremely valuable. “Xavier said no more experimenting,” I pant as he holds the syringe in his mouth, using his free hand to pull my sheet up, exposing my belly.
“This isn’t an experiment. This is a modification,” he says simply. I have no ability to fight him, but I squirm anyway. “Easy, little dove.” He smirks. “If I hit the fetus with this needle, it could hurt it. Best stay still for this.” I freeze instantly. Suddenly, he jams the needle into the lower part of my abdomen, making me shriek. It’s only a matter of seconds before he removes it. My body remains tense, waiting for the pain to set in, but nothing comes. Leaving the syringe on the cart with the ultrasound equipment, he withdraws the wand and peels the condom off it, tossing it in a waste bin by the door, followed by his gloves.
“It will be unlike anything the world has seen,” he smiles as he stares down at me with a look of wonderment in his eyes.
“What have you done?”
“Maybe something incredible, or maybe nothing at all.” He shrugs. “Only time will tell.”
Summoning all of my will, I conjure the best death glare I can. “Just so you know. I’m going to kill you if I get free,” I promise. “One way, or another.”
“We’ll see.” He nods and leaves the room.
It was easy to find Dr. Bruce Whitlow. He’s a hematologist at a hospital in Dallas. Figures his specialty would be in blood.
“That means he’s in with Xavier,” Flynn notes as we stare at Whitlow’s photo on the computer, his glasses perched on his straight nose, and his arms crossed. I hate to say it, but Kitten and her brothers look just like him. Somewhere inside me, a rubber band stretches. I feel it tightening, reaching its limit as my anger grows each day. As I continue to stare at his photo, the band pulls. Thomas said she didn’t know it was her biological father torturing her, but I wonder if he knows who she is.
Xavier Valin is master of the Dallas nest. Not a pleasant vampire to deal with at all. I’ve only met him once at a decade convention eight years ago. All nests meet once a decade to discuss issues such as healer breeding, human carnage, and what measures need to be taken to prevent exposure. Of course, I was Andre’s ‘brother’ at the time, and I was welcomed by all. After all, I did help Andre take down Sebastian, the original leader of Andre’s nest, so my loyalty was not in question. All of the other nests knew Sebastian’s plan to end the healer breeding, and agreed with Andre’s attack and overthrow. Now, I’m sure Xavier is watching out for me, which means every vampire in the country probably is as well.
“We have to go,” Eileen adds from behind us, her fierce green eyes burning a hole in the screen. She wants Aldo back, and she wants Whitlow’s death.
“I know.” I shake my head. “This could be a blood bath, though.”
“I’m coming with you,” Thomas pipes up from the corner where he’s been trying to enter Kitten’s subconscious.
I every intention of bringing him, just in case I need him to get in touch with Aldo, but the plan is to spell him to remain in the hotel room while the rest of us go get her. We map out a plan—the best one we can come up with—and prepare to leave immediately.
“You’re coming with us,” I reassure him. “Any luck reaching her?” I ask, hopeful.
“No,” he sighs. “She’s awake right now.”
I close my eyes and sigh. Who knows what happens to her when she’s awake. I hate to think of how they’re torturing her, but I am relieved. If she’s awake, she’s alive. Hold on, Kitten. I’m coming for you. Just hold on a little longer.
“Order’s are to kill anyone on site,” I growl as I open my eyes and fix my gaze on Whitlow’s photo.
“And Bridge?” Flynn asks. Rage balloons inside my chest to the point I think it may explode.
Bridge will die.
Cutting a steady gaze to him, I sneer, “I’ll take care of Bridge.”
It takes us almost twenty-four hours to get to Dallas and find Whitlow at the hospital where he works. I have no doubt Bridge has shown each of our photos to him and Xavier, so they know who to watch out for. The plan is simple. Find Whitlow and follow him until he leads us to where they are keeping her. Eileen has disguised herself as a resident to gain access to the hospital. When she finds the doctor, she calls me on her cell and alerts me.
“He’s heading out the rear entrance of the south medical building.”
“Okay, fall back and regroup with Flynn. I’m heading around the side near the parking deck. You two wait in your car on the street.”
“10-4,” she responds and hangs up.
“Nick?” I call over the headset I’m wearing.
“Roger?”
“You and Cassia block the lane closest to the parking deck at the entrance. I’m going to pull in front of you so I can be sure to get behind him when he leaves.”
“Affirmative.”
I pull around just as the doctor enters the parking deck and pass him. Pulling over, I park a moment later with Nick and Cassia behind me.
“Daniel, we’re in position,” Flynn radios.
I take a deep breath. We’re close. So close to getting her back. We cannot fuck this up. “Everyone be on alert. We don’t know who is watching us while we are watching him.”
I wake to howling. The sound of a wild animal in complete misery, calling for mercy. The blood curdling bellows reverberate every bit of what I’ve felt over the last however-many days I’ve been here while the doctor has played science with my body. Despite my own pain and worries, I feel for the poor soul in the room next to mine.
“You’re not alone,” I try to yell, but my voice is hoarse, and I doubt he or she hears me. “Keep fighting. It will be okay!” Again, I know my attempt to comfort the poor person in the next room is pointless, as I can barely speak over a loud whisper, but I try anyway.
Finally the howling stops, and I sigh in relief. Maybe they drugged whoever it is and they’re asleep now. With nothing but silence to entomb me, I drift off once again.
