The Bite That Binds Part 8

Eating her kebab, Sam watched in an almost detached interest as a screaming Magda shot up from the lounger beside ours, patting her hair. Then, still looking bored, Sam raised her hand and sent a gush of water at Magda, calming the flames.

With her soaking wet hair plastered to her head, a quivering extremely-cheesed-off Magda honed in on the amazing female between my legs.

Sam merely shrugged one shoulder delicately. "I did warn you." How she managed to keep a straight face when the majority of people around her including me were shaking with silent laughter, I had no idea.

Somehow, Magda remained dignified as she left with her consort in tow. That was when everyone erupted into laughter again, not bothering to keep their laughs quiet this time.

Sensing Sam's smugness, I couldn't help smiling. Cupping her chin, I turned her head and brought her face to meet mine, speaking against her mouth. "You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

She gasped in mock horror. "You can't seriously be insinuating that I enjoy inflicting pain on another person?" She jiggled her head. "All right, I did. But she's not a person, she's a b.i.t.c.h who hurt you, so I don't give a f.u.c.k."

Who wouldn't love a girl who'd set someone on fire for you?

The person who was laughing the loudest was actually Wes. He even nodded approvingly at Sam. I felt that she was surprised by it. I wasn't. Earlier, I'd noticed that Wes was testing Sam. It might have ticked me off if I hadn't been one hundred percent positive that nothing he did could faze her.

Sure, a huge part of me had wanted to tell him to back off and leave her alone, but then she'd have whipped my a.s.s for fighting her battles for her. However, if she hadn't pa.s.sed his test I would have definitely stepped in, because the guy would have then done everything he could to separate us. I'd never let anyone, or anything, do that. Not even her.

(Sam) Pain. So much pain. Every single part of me hurt, just as it had when the brothers had done something to me. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to curse and writhe in sheer agony. But I couldn't.

I couldn't move at all, not even to open my eyelids.

I had expected Jared to sense my pain, to wake and help me. But I could hear him breathing evenly beside me, totally relaxed. Whatever was happening wasn't simply paralysing me, it was interfering with my connection to Jared. And didn't that just spook the c.r.a.p out of me, increasing my panic.

The whole thing made me think of intraoperative awareness' incidences when people who were anaesthetised could see, hear, and feel but were unable to move or communicate this in any way. Despite feeling like someone's hands were tearing into me and rummaging around in my abdomen, despite feeling as though those same hands were crushing my insides, I couldn't give in to that primal urge to scream.

Instead, I screamed in my head at the feeling of invisible, harsh, merciless fingers torturing my body and poking inside my head. Then, suddenly, the pain stopped, and I jack-knifed to a sitting position, panting as utter terror continued to flow through me.

Jared's hands framed my face, searching my expression. "What is it, baby? Bad dream?"

"No, I woke up to this horrible pain. I was hurting all over, but I couldn't tell you, I couldn't move."

He crushed me to him, kissing my temple. "You sure you weren't dreaming?"

"It wasn't a dream."

His voice was like a blade. "Was it the same pain you felt when the brothers hurt you?"

I nodded. "Do you think Antonio's researchers will find out anything?"

"If there's something worth finding out, those guys will find it." The confidence in his voice made me breathe better. If they were so good that Jared relaxed at the mere thought of them, they had to be extremely capable.

"What do you think the brothers did to me?" My voice was quiet, almost vulnerable.

Jared squeezed me tightly. "I swear I'll find out what they did, and I'll get them to fix it."

"I know."

It was only an hour or so after breakfast that I, Jared, Denny, Max, Harvey, and Jude were stood outside the block of apartments where Janine Peterson lived or had lived with her boyfriend. Ten minutes before, Antonio had informed us that the boyfriend had returned from whatever trip he had been on. Jared had teleported us all there, and now it was time to get some answers.

Jude was obviously raring to get those answers, but Jared and I had instructed her not to interrupt our interrogation. Providing she didn't interfere, the boyfriend would be all hers once we were done questioning him.

As we ascended the graffiti-covered stairs, we past many drugged humans some of whom were injecting themselves right there, right then. Although I wasn't a Keja, I like all vampires had an otherworldly lure that made humans take notice. And they did take notice of each and every one of us. I was pretty sure that if Jude and I had been on our own, we would have been attacked not that our attackers would have gotten very far, of course. The f.u.c.k off' looks that Jared and the squad were wearing hadn't been ignored. Wise of the humans.

Finally outside the apartment number on Janine's driver's license, we didn't bother knocking. Nor did we force our way inside. The last thing we needed was to have a door we couldn't lock behind us, as that would allow others to glimpse inside. There would be much worth seeing tonight, and although it was unlikely that any human particularly a drugged one would have been believed if they had reported what they witnessed, it was always important to be careful.

One thing that science fiction had got right was that there were indeed human government divisions that fully believed vampires existed, and these divisions were absolutely intent on getting hold of one. Maybe they even had caught a vampire at some point, but if they had, they weren't content with just the one. They investigated each and every report that even had a hint of vampirism to it, no matter how small or how ridiculous, in the hope that it might lead them somewhere. It was best to not help them out with that.

Seeing that the hallway was totally clear, Denny reduced himself to mush and slipped under the door. When the door opened enough to allow us all to enter, we then locked it behind us. Instantly we found ourselves in a small, cluttered living area that stunk heavily of smoke, sweat, stale food, and the distinctive scent of cannabis. Refraining from balking had been a challenge for every one of us.

At the sound of a toilet flushing, our heads whipped around to our left. One of the three doors further down the hallway opened, and out stepped a tall, gangly guy with dark unkempt hair and skin almost as pale as mine. Upon seeing us, he Leon, I remembered Janine calling him froze.

The movement might not have registered to a human before it was too late, but it was like slow motion to a vampire when Leon reached behind him and retrieved a gun from the waistband of his jeans. He had barely had a chance to aim it at us when Harvey used his telekinesis to s.n.a.t.c.h the weapon and pull it to him.

Leon's eyes widened to saucers. To his credit, he didn't freeze with fear like others might have done. But before he could take more than one step backwards I a.s.sumed he wanted to head for his bedroom where there was most likely another gun Denny had sprayed yellowy-green ooze out of his thumbs and smallest fingers, trapping him. Denny then used the sticky ooze to bounce Leon from the hallway to the ragged sofa. At Jared's command, Denny didn't release the human from the grip of the ooze.

Jared and I stood in front of the sofa, looking down at him. My voice was deceptively pleasant. "You must be Leon. Glad you're finally back." The poor b.u.g.g.e.r looked like he might p.i.s.s himself. I hoped not. The place smelled foul enough as it was. "I'll bet you're wishing you'd stayed away a little longer though, eh?"

He swallowed hard. "Whatever it is you're looking for, I didn't take it."

That statement was sort of the equivalent of a child suddenly saying Mummy, I didn't do anything with your scissors', and then you turn to find your curtains have been chopped up. "So Janine was telling the truth. You like to take what isn't yours to take."

"J-Janine?"

"Yes, we had an interesting conversation with her. She's a lovely girl. I noticed that she was pregnant. How long does she have left before the birth?"

"A month or so," he lied easily.

In my experience, most thieves were, in fact, good liars. I supposed they had to be. "How sweet."

"Look, I haven't done any jobs for months now. I've been trying to get myself clean."

"Tell me, are you a kleptomaniac, or are you just one of those people who are lazy and greedy and have a sense of ent.i.tlement?"

His brow crinkled. "Kleptomaniac?"

"A kleptomaniac is someone who is addicted to thieving. They get the same kind of high from it that a drug addict would get from cocaine."

His face scrunched up into a defensive expression. "It's not like the people I steal stole from can't easily replace what I took."

"And that's how you justify it to yourself, is it? Tell me, how do you justify helping unborn babies being stolen from their mothers?"

His mouth bobbed open and closed like a landed fish. Eventually, he shrugged, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Jared snickered, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm not sure there's much point in you playing dumb. We know about the criminal organisation. We know about the Scouts, the Deliverers, and the Medics. But there's more, isn't there, Leon? So much more. What we really want are names. Janine was quite informative, but she was unable to give us any names. She seemed to think that you, however, might just be able to."

Leon's eyes danced between Jared and me. "Janine wouldn't have said anything. She's not stupid."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked. "Are you sure she'd be so tight-lipped if, say, someone had done this right before her very eyes?" Using the energy I'd absorbed from around me, I manipulated it into my energy whip. Leon blanched.

"Janine had pretty much the same reaction," Jared told him. "But come on, are you really that shocked when you're wrapped in ooze and you watched someone take your gun without even touching it?"

Leon swallowed hard again. He was trembling now. "I snorted a lot of s.h.i.t earlier."

"Ah, and you're hoping to convince yourself it's just the drugs?" I had to smile at that. "I can promise you right now, Leon, you are certainly not hallucinating or dreaming. I could pinch you just so you can be sure? Or maybe I'll just do this." I cracked my whip at him, catching his earlobe. Leon jerked, hissing.

"I recommend you get talking," said Jared, his voice grave. "I'm not a patient person at the best of times, but the last couple of days have tried me in ways you can't imagine. I'm not in a good frame of mind." He leaned forward, putting himself at eye level with Leon. "I want the name of the person who's running this operation." I knew that Jared doubted he knew a detail such as that, but it was always worth asking.

"What are you people?"

Jared's smile wasn't nice. "You don't want to know. Trust me on that. Now, I believe you were going to tell me his name."

"I don't know his name, I don't know any names."

Jared rolled his eyes. "It's like groundhog day. They always say the same s.h.i.t." He gave Max a short nod. Understanding, Max opened his fist and closed it robbing Leon of the ability to speak. When the human realised that not one of his words were at all audible, his eyes almost bugged out of his drawn face.

Jared's unpleasant smile returned. "We wouldn't want anyone hearing you scream, would we?" With that, he raised one hand and placed his fingertips against Leon's forehead. Leon's mouth opened in a silent scream as currents of electricity zinged through him, making his entire body shake. Ten seconds later, Jared stopped. He signalled for Max to give Leon back his ability to speak. "His name."

Leon, panting and shaking his head, said, "I swear I don't know. I can't tell you what I don't know."

Jared sighed. "Max." Once Leon had again lost his ability to vocalise, Jared again repeated his torturous process. It was fifteen seconds this time before he stopped and allowed Max to undo what he'd done. "I want his name."

"Please, please, please listen to me. I don't know his name." Seeing that Jared was again about to give Max a signal, Leon quickly cried, "But I'll tell you what I do know, I swear."

I c.o.c.ked my head at him. "And what is it, exactly, that you do know? It better be good, Leon."

"My part in the whole thing is simple. I receive a text message with the name of a shopping mall or something like that. I send Janine there, and I wait for her to contact me with a description of the woman she's drugged. I relay this info to the Deliverer in a text message. That's all."

That's consistent with what Janine said, I reminded Jared. "You must know the Deliverer's name, at the very least."

"I don't, I've never once heard her voice. I only know she's a woman because Janine saw her from afar a few times. We only communicate using text messages, and I delete them afterwards like I was instructed when I first got the job."

I arched a brow. "Oh yeah? And what were these instructions?"

"Wait for text messages, don't act until I receive any, never talk of the operation to anyone, and only ever drug the women with the drug that they leave with the money."

"So how do you get the drug and your wages if you don't come face-to-face with anyone?"

"Every month, I'm sent a text message with the address of wherever they've hidden the money and the drug. Sometimes it's in a public bathroom, sometimes it's in a phone booth, or hidden in a bush near the local park. I never know where the stuff's going to be, and I never see anyone. These people are very secretive. Paranoid, even."

Jared sn.i.g.g.e.red. "You expect us to believe that you've never seen even one face, you've never heard even one name?"

"I haven't, I swear-"

Sighing in annoyance, Jared nodded at Max. A stream of words came out of a petrified Leon, but none were audible. "Oh, you've remembered something." Instead of electrocuting him, Jared again nodded at Max, who returned Leon's ability to speak. "What's that now?"

Leon was almost sobbing. "When I first met the person who recruited me, she introduced herself as Wendy. Janine's description of the Deliverer matched the Wendy I spoke to: a middle-aged blonde who wore gla.s.ses."

I knew he was telling the truth about that part at least. It was the same description that Jude and Janine had given us.

"Where's your cell phone?" Jared asked him.

"The kitchen counter."

I retrieved the phone. "Is the number saved in your contact list?"

Leon nodded. "Under the name Del'. Short for Deliverer."

I exhaled heavily and gave him a bright smile. "Well, that's all. You've been quite helpful. More than I thought, considering you lack a conscience."

He sneered. "You can be moral and law abiding when life's going good. I'll bet none of you know what it's like to have nothing, to be so d.a.m.n hungry you were rummaging through a garbage can, to just need one hit."

I knew more about poverty than he thought, but I had no wish to explain myself to him. I shrugged. "Then I guess we're doing you a favour by letting our friend here end your pitiful existence." His face became a question mark. "Leon...Meet Jude."

CHAPTER SIX.

(Sam) Looking at myself in my oval mirror a few hours later, I groaned in exasperation. When Fletcher had knocked on the door and thrust a shopping bag at me, I'd known what would be inside, and I'd known it would be revealing. Of course if Fletcher was here, he would have disagreed; he would have said that the blood-red satin dress was flattering' and skin tight'. In reality, it was revealing.

Wearing a crooked smile, Jared came up behind me and curled his arms around my waist. "As much as I love this dress on you, it's making me want to take it off and have my way with you."

"I fully plan to take it off, it's too revealing."

He frowned. "No, leave it on. It's not revealing, it's flattering."

I groaned again. Now Fletcher's little phrases were rubbing off on Jared. Wasn't that special.

He just chuckled. "Cheer up, baby. We're about to go on a dinner cruise as part of the celebrations for our Binding."

"I know. But I can't help feeling guilty for enjoying myself when that organisation is still up and running." Jude hadn't taken it well when I told her that we wouldn't be calling the Deliverer. We didn't want to do anything that would be considered out of the ordinary for Leon, and he'd said that she contacted him. So we needed to wait for the Deliverer to get in touch before we could make our next move, but naturally Jude's patience for vengeance was running low. I couldn't blame her for that.

Jared nuzzled my neck. "I know what you mean. I feel bad shoving this matter aside, but how else are we going to enjoy this week unless we keep the a.s.signment and the celebrations totally separate in our minds?"

I sighed. "All right, smart a.r.s.e."

Having let Jared talk me into not changing my dress, we then headed for the beach. I should have guessed that Antonio the flashy sod wouldn't have just any yacht, but a luxury almost futuristic-looking one. The interior was more like a five-star hotel; it had a s.p.a.cious lounge, a cla.s.sy dining area, and several private cabins. Additionally, there was an outer dining area on the deck where two long tables were set up and a band was waiting. Wow, Antonio had gone all out tonight.

While the squad, the Master Vampires, Fletcher and Norm sat at one table, the High Master Vampires sat at the other with me, Jared, Evan, Antonio, Luther, Sebastian, Wes, and Lena. Just as they had at the informal gathering, Marcia, Rowan, and Ricardo were quite standoffish with me. They even went as far as to ignore my presence at the table, running their gaze along everyone but me as they spoke.

The fact that no one had stepped in to defend me would speak volumes to these prats Jared, Antonio, and the others all believed me capable of protecting myself. Still, I could feel Jared's frustration, knew that he wanted to say something anyway, but a few cautioning pinches from me stopped him.

To my surprise, it was Marcia who was the worst. She had some nerve, considering that she wasn't even a powerful vampire; she was simply Bound to one quite different. I wanted to seriously dislike her, but it was hard to dislike someone who was a silent partner in many human charities. I was in the same situation with Rowan and Ricardo. Neither of them were what anyone could call bad people'.

Rowan, though largely unpleasant, had his good points. I had learned that the reason he had such an extensive bloodline wasn't because he was quite the biter. It was that whenever he had encountered a human who knew a little too much about vampires, he hadn't immediately killed them as necessary. He had given them the choice: death or vampirism. Not many would want to be responsible for so many vampires. But despite that his numbers were large, he continued to make this offer.