I pull out my phone to text Finn when I suddenly get a strange feeling. At first, I’m confused about what has stopped me. That’s when I’m slammed into the wall hard enough I feel the drywall crumble beneath my weight.
FINN
You have to be shitting me.
I look around at the metal crates that fill the room. At first, I think they must be dog crates—they’re not much bigger—until I realize that there’s a person inside the first one. They’re lying on their side, a blanket pulled over their legs. With their glassy eyes open, I immediately find myself assuming they’re dead, but when I kneel down, I see that the vampire is blinking.
“Hey, can you hear me?” I ask.
Her eyes slowly shift toward me, but they don’t seem to notice me. On the front of the crate is a dry erase board. Next to it is an empty IV bag, line hanging from it. There’s something in marker written on the bag, but it’s just numbers that mean nothing to me.
“I’m with the police. My name is Finn. I’m here to help you.”
That gets a reaction out of her. “Please, help… please…”
I kneel in front of the crate and look at the lock that’s keeping the door closed. “Do you know where the key is?”
“Bench… please. Help me. Please.”
I pick up my phone and quickly text Marcus what’s happening and ask him to call for backup. I don’t want to waste time doing it or risk someone seeing me when he can do it upstairs.
Then I turn to the bench and start searching it. Of course the key isn’t just sitting there, so I’m hunting the place over, looking for it. That’s when I see it hanging on the side of the wood, just out of sight. I pull it off and glance at my phone, wondering why Marcus hasn’t replied. I would assume he’d be staring at the phone waiting for something from me in case I wasn’t alone down here.
I rush back over to the crate and slide the key into the lock. As I’m turning it, I realize that I hear footsteps on the stairs and I freeze.
You have to be kidding me! What’s going on? Did something happen to Marcus? I can’t imagine he’d just let them waltz on down here. Unless it is him. But then why wouldn’t he have come down with me the first time?
I check my phone again before quickly sending him a message, then I swing the door open and reach in for the woman.
“What the fuck, Dave? You know you don’t do that shit here!” a man growls.
Definitely not Marcus. Could it be Perry? It is his club I’m snooping around. We now know he’s more than just involved, with this in the basement.
I text Marcus and Brooks about what is happening.
“I thought you needed another vampire!” a man says. I could be wrong, but he sounds like the bouncer who’d stopped me because he thought I wasn’t old enough.
“Not at my club! Now we need to evacuate everything. We’ll move them to the main building. We can’t have the cops snooping around with this shit down here. Dammit, Dave! After that fucking stunt, who knows who might have called them here!”
“It’ll be fine! Everyone was into it!”
“Yeah, and what about one single person who wasn’t and called the cops?”
I quickly look around for someplace to hide. I see a door at the far end, so I grab for the woman. “Come on, we’ll escape through there.”
“They could be taking us to him,” she says, voice so soft I barely hear it.
“We can figure that out later,” I say as I reach in and grab her. The blanket falls away and I see that she’s also chained to the heavy crate, and I have my doubts the key I have will unlock her. She grabs my arm and yanks me inside, shoving me to the ground. Since I’d been holding my phone in case Marcus texted me, it falls from my hand and skids through the bars before knocking into the crate butted up against this one. Instinctively, I reach for my tranq gun, but she slams the door shut and throws a blanket over me.
I want to yell at her and fight to get away, but before I can, the door to the room swings open and I hear footsteps and a dragging noise. Carefully, I try to move to see what it is, but the vampire is keeping me pinned down. This has turned into a fucking mess, and now I don’t have my phone to text Marcus. But why isn’t he replying?
Something couldn’t have happened to him, right? He’s Marcus! He’s strong and old and could crush a skull with his hand. But they have those drugs and those bullets, and what if something happened to him? And it’s my fault because I went down here even when he didn’t want me to.
I turn my head just enough that I can see a sliver of the men and realize that one is indeed Perry and the other is the bouncer.
“Get the truck up to the door. Stop lollygagging!” Perry shouts. “Who the hell forgot to lock this crate? You’re lucky she didn’t try to get out.”
I hear the lock snap into place and the crate begins to slide, telling me it’s on wheels and I’m going for a ride that I really don’t want to go on. I could shoot them from here, but the vampire is holding my bad arm down and I have very little pull on that, so it’s nearly impossible for me to get away. And if I do, I’m locked in this tiny crate which means it might not be the best spot for me since there is literally no cover.
But most concerning of all is: why isn’t Marcus doing anything?
What the hell is happening up there?
MARCUS
I’m thrown into the wall with such force that I’m momentarily stunned. No one gets that close to me without me noticing, so how in the hell did I end up in this situation?
I try to turn, but the man shoves my face so hard that I hear the drywall begin to crack. “Let go of me,” I growl as an overwhelming aura permeates the air. It’s like a thick fog that makes my body feel heavy. That’s when I realize that I recognize it. It’s the same as the day in my driveway.
“You dare tell me what to do?” the man asks, his voice nearly a whisper, but it’s so vivid even as music pounds around me. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
I try turning my head to look at his face, but his hood is up and all I can see is darkness as it feels like the world is crashing around me.
His fingers, cold as ice, slide into my hair as he yanks my head back. “You need to keep your hands off my doll, or I will kill you.”
Doll?
“Why are you harassing Finn?” I growl.
“Harassing? You misunderstand, Finn is mine.”
The steadiness of his voice, the conviction in it, drives anger through me and I turn hard, shoving him off me before moving to face him. The air is chokingly thick. It’s rare for me to meet anyone older than I am, but for someone to have this power? Enough power that it makes me struggle? I look around and notice that all of the humans are on their knees, baring their necks for him to take. They’re terrified, but their bodies betray them, and instantly, they give themselves over to him.
“Hmph. How cute! You think you can escape me. My, Marcus, it’s very lucky that I’m even letting you live, and you want to know why?” he asks, his voice rich and melodic.
I wish I could see his face, but even without seeing it in the dark club, I can tell he’s smirking because there’s so much joy in his words.