106

I woke up to the murmuring of voices that I couldn’t quite make out and I let my eyes adjust to the dimness of the room I was being held in. I was chained to a wall and my limbs had pins and needles all over, a sign that the poison was working its way out of my body.

“Abeloth?” I asked in my mind.

“I’m here halfling, they got us bad this time,” he said sounding groggy.

“Can you separate?” I asked him.

“It feels like I’m trapped inside you, I’m being blocked somehow,” he said as he tried to push through.

“At least we found his hideout,” I said and Abeloth chuckled.

“Yeah at least we got this far,” he said and lay down again.

I recognized the vampire that took me from the side of the road as he placed a chair a few feet in front of me. Even if I could kick out now I wouldn’t reach the chair, they were still being careful around me and that actually made me smile.

“He’s awake Sir,” the vampire said as he lifted my head and met my eyes.

“Bring him some water,” the other man said.

The vampire left the room as the man remained shrouded in the shadows and I had yet to see what he looked like. The vampire zipped back into the room with a bottle of water and he held it in front of my mouth as I looked at him.

“It’s not poisoned,” the vampire said as he took a sip from it and held it in front of my mouth again. This time I did drink from the bottle. He held it there until the bottle was empty and placed it on a wooden table that stood to the right.

“Where are my manners, my name is Cliff,” the vampire introduced himself to me.

“You look familiar,” I said as I looked at him.

“I should, you killed my brother Clarence,” he said and then I could see the resemblance in his face.

“He was easy to kill,” I said and that earned me a hard punch to the jaw and I spat the blood out of my mouth.

“Easy now Clifford, you’ll have plenty of time to play with him later,” the man said as he stepped out of the shadows.

He was tall, like most dragonkin with Sire blood were, I reckoned he was in his mid-thirties or so. He had light blue eyes and dark brown hair that hung down to his shoulders. His clothes were expensive and his hands looked like they had seen plenty of fights.

“The infamous Ryder Grey, elite hunter of the supernatural world, we meet at last,” he said as he sat down on the chair that Clifford had placed in front of me.

“I assume you’re Carlson,” I said to him and he smiled at me.

“Where did you hear my name?” he asked.

“Joe gave you up,” I said to him.

“I was apprehensive at first but then again I never did think that you’d kill him or that he would talk,” Carlson said.

“Everybody talks at some point,” I said and his smile got bigger.

“Will you talk?” he asked me as I kept my expression neutral.

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked him.

“How you found my house in Fowler, how you figured out to go to Albert, what Basil knows and who you’ve told all of this,” he said.

“The house in Fowler was easy to find, I mapped out the locations of where the children got abducted and started checking satellite feeds, I found the same van at three of the locations so I started tracing it through traffic cameras,” I said to him.

“Hmm interesting concept,” he said.

“The van was also registered to the holding company that owns that house, it was easy to link it together,” I said to him.

“Now tell me about Albert,” he said as Clifford brought him a glass of whiskey.

“Albert’s mistake was coming to see me and trying to put a contract on Basil’s head,” I said to him.

“That one he did on his own, I was quite furious when he told me about that afterwards,” he said.

“I only did exactly what he asked me to do, I went to go see Basil, but what Albert didn’t know was that I’ve known Basil for quite some time. Basil had some very interesting things to share with me,” I said.

“So your little visit today was to flush me out,” Carlson said.

“It worked,” I said to him.

“Did it now? Here you are chained to a wall and I’m a free man,” he said calmly.

“You won’t be free for long,” I said to him.

“You have a team don’t you,” he said.

“I don’t need a team to kill you,” I said.

“Overconfident like all the Grey men of your family,” he said.

“I know you’re scared shitless of me, that’s the only reason why I’m chained to a wall, you’re too much of a fucking girl to face me one on one,” I said to him.

“We have plenty of time for all that but first I’m going to have some fun and show you what it feels like to have your family killed,” he said to me as I started laughing loudly.

“Give it your best shot Carlson, I dare you to go after my family,” I said to him.

“There are more members of your family than just Lucas and Chase Grey,” he said to me.

“True, but those are the only ones besides me that you really want to kill,” I said to him.

“Clifford, scan him for any gps trackers,” Carlson said as he stood up from the chair.

I held my head high as Carlson left the room and Clifford took out a mobile scanner and went over my whole body. Satisfied that there were no trackers on me, he moved the chair back against the wall and left the room. I heard the key turn in the lock and looked around to take in my surroundings.

I tugged on the chains and looked up at the wall. The chains were being held fast by roll bolts. I wouldn’t be able to pull them out and I sighed feeling defeated. I closed my eyes and tried to rest so that I could be clear headed when they came back for me.

They left me alone for two days except for Clifford who brought me food and water. The food was awful to say the least but at least they were feeding me. Every two days they would inject me with the poison and we’d move locations, when I woke up I was in a new basement or cell and I had no idea where the hell I was.

I’d been moved four times now which meant that I’d been missing for about ten days and still no sign of my team. In the beginning I had every confidence that they would be barging through that door at any minute but my hope was dwindling down now. Megan would’ve been angry with me because I missed our appointment at the diner but I was sure she was frantic with worry by now.

I was beaten on regular intervals by either Clifford or another vampire but it was nothing serious and I’d really been through worse, even my training had been worse and I kept quiet or sometimes I just laughed in their faces as their frustration grew because they couldn’t break me.

Today felt different somehow, Clifford was in a terrible mood and I saw the anger and hate on his face as he opened the cell door. He pressed a taser against my ribs and my whole body shook as the electric currents ran through me.

“You Grey’s think you’re so high and mighty,” he spat at me as his punch cracked the two ribs where he had just tased me.

“Did another of your friends die?” I asked him with a smile which just resulted in more punching to wipe that smile off my face.

“Your brother’s stronger that we thought, but we’ll get him,” he said vehemently.

“Sure you will,” I said as he hit me again, breaking the cracked ribs in the process.

“As for your mother,” he said and grinned at me.

“Trust me you don’t want to touch my mother, Lucas will rip your heart out through your mouth and smile while he does it,” I said to him.

“Your father’s been harder to track,” he said.

“He’s a bastard right,” I said and chuckled.

“I’m sure you’ve wondered why nobody’s been looking for you,” he said and I looked at him.

“The thought has crossed my mind,” I said.

“Your little girlfriend, well now ex-girlfriend was furious when you missed your date at the diner, she waited for you for two hours by the way, she didn’t really appreciate the text you sent her, saying it was over and that it would never work out between you two, she claimed her father had been right about you, whatever that’s all about,” Clifford said as he held my phone in his hand.

“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” I said to him as he laughed.

“As for your other friends, they all think you’ve left to clear your mind because your little heart is broken over the break up, your family thinks that too, so you see Ryder, nobody’s coming to look for you,” he said as I looked at him.

“They know me better than that, they’ll come to look for me eventually,” I said.

“By that time I’m sure they’ll have found your body,” he said with an amused grin on his face.

“I can smell your fear you know, you should be very afraid, you should run while you can still put some distance between this and yourself,” I said to him.

“Why would I fear you?” he said as he walked right up to me.

I swung my legs up and around his neck and started squeezing as his eyes bulged and his hands grabbed onto my legs as he tried to get loose. His nails elongated and they dug painfully into my thighs as I concentrated on morphing my hands. I felt the claws as they tore through my fingernails and I started clawing at the steel chains.

“Say your last prayers vampire,” I spat out through gritted teeth as my claw cut through one chain and my right arm was now free. I swung my clawed hand through the other chain and I fell downwards with my arms and threw the vampire over my body with my legs.

I was on top of him in an instant as I stuck my claws deep into his chest and ripped his heart out. The shock was still evident on his now dead features and I felt my head spin. The claws had retracted and I felt exhausted. The poison was still lurking in my system and this move had weakened me considerably.

“Halfling I will give you what strength I have left, you need to move and I need to rest,” Abeloth said.

“I’ll get us out of here Abeloth,” I said as I felt him drift away from me.

I searched Clifford’s pockets and found a knife strapped to his belt. I took my cellphone which was dead, the knife, his wallet and car keys and opened the metal door slowly. I looked down the hallway and didn’t hear any other sounds.

I had no idea which way to go but I chose to go right and started walking slowly down the hallway slightly leaning my left side against the wall. I was hurt, poisoned and I had no idea where I was, but then again I’d been through worse before.

“Halfling, this is all I have left,” Abeloth said before I felt him disappear completely. A burst of energy shot through me and I felt a hundred times better and I could feel my ribs heal as Abeloth passed out.