Chapter 31 - Interrogation

It had been four days since Nolan and Silas were thrown into the dungeons with no food, water, and, most importantly, no blood. Luci told Xavier they should be ready to tell them anything they wanted to know if they dangled a little blood in front of them.

Xavier worried that their information about her father may upset her. Luci reassured him that whatever her father's involvement, he needed to pay just like Nolan and Silas. No one deserved to die for someone else's greed.

They decided to start with Silas first, so if they could get the information from him, they could let Nolan continue to rot. Vampires need blood to feed the cells of their bodies; the longer they go without blood, the more cells begin to die. This causes the vampire to start rotting. Once enough cells have died, there's no return, and the vampire will eventually die.

Four days without blood will have caused enough of Silas and Nolan's cells to die, so they will be desperate to get blood before it's too late. Luci and Xavier waited in the interrogation room of the dungeon while one of the guards went to get Silas.

When the guard dragged Silas in, he looked almost dead already. He was paler than usual, with deep purple coloring around his eyes. His cheeks were sunken in, and he couldn't walk by himself. The guard threw him into the chair across from Luci and Xavier.

"Damn, Silas, you smell like you're already dead. I bet a little blood would do wonders for you." Luci held up a small vial of blood, and Silas' eyes focused on it as he started drooling.

"I need it, Luci," Silas spoke in a barely audible whisper, focusing on the blood his body craved. He would have jumped across the table to take it from her but was too weak to stand.

"I will give this to you and more if you tell us what we want to know." Luci pulled out a large bottle of blood and showed it to him. He reached for it, but she pulled it back. Xavier drew Silas' attention to him.

"You can have it after we're done. If you don't answer our questions, you'll get no blood, and we will give it to Nolan. Who is the head of your operation?" Xavier asked, and Silas looked at Luci before putting his head down.

"Damien, he recruited Nolan and me about a hundred years ago. He said he had a plan to sell shifters and vampires to humans." Silas stopped and looked at Luci again, seeing her shock. He actually felt sorry for her. Damien was a sick freak, and he hoped they didn't ask him if Damien ever kept any of those they kidnapped.

"What did the humans want them for?" Luci asked him, scared of the answer. She knew it couldn't be for anything good.

"I don't know exactly, but I heard some were using them for breeding. Others were using them for experiments. I don't know what else they were doing with them. There are some sick humans out there." Silas stopped again. Humans weren't the only sick ones.

"Were humans the only ones that bought them?" Xavier asked the question this time. He could see Luci getting furious and wanted to step in before she strangled Silas herself.

"No, other shifters and vampires bought them too. They usually put in special requests for exactly what they were looking for. Sometimes, we didn't do the kidnapping but gave the customer potions to get what they wanted. We had a vampire wine salesman who wanted a younger female vampire. He preferred she had green eyes and brown hair. He traveled all over, so we gave him a potion for when he found the woman he wanted. The woman would think he was her mate if they touched each other. That's the most recent one I can think of."

Xavier noticed Luci got paler and paler as Silas spoke. He decided to give Silas a treat and poured out a small glass of blood, handing it to him. Silas drank it down in one gulp. Xavier stood up and pulled Luci with him when she didn't move. After they walked out of the room, he held her to him.

"What's wrong?" Luci looked up at Xavier with terrified eyes.

"The day I first met you, my best friend Janie had come over and said the night before, when we were at a club, she met her mate. He was a vampire wine salesman who traveled all over the world. Janie's a brunette with green eyes. She told me that she and her mate Sam literally bumped into each other and felt the mate sparks. He was taking her to Italy with him. I've been a terrible friend; I haven't checked in on her to see how she's doing. What if Sam is the one who bought the potion and Janie's in trouble?"

Luci felt dread wash over her. Janie had been so excited about meeting her mate that Luci never thought it could be anything other than the natural mate bond.

"Let's finish questioning Silas, and then we'll try to contact Janie. We have to be careful because we don't want her mate hurting her because we asked too many questions. I promise we will get to the bottom of all this." Now that they were mated, Xavier could feel Luci's emotions, so he knew she felt guilty and scared. He hoped for her sake and Janie's that her mate was her fated mate, not one made by a potion.

"Alright, but if we discover Sam is not her fated mate, will you let me light him on fire? I know it's not queen-like, but if he hurt Janie, nothing but death will be good enough for him." Xavier smiled; he liked seeing this side of Luci.

"I will pour the gasoline while you light the match, my queen." Xavier kissed her in a way that made her knees go weak, and she felt herself relaxing.

When they returned to the interrogation room, Silas looked a little better after drinking the cup of blood Xavier had given him, but he still needed more. Luci sat across from him now that she had her composure and began questioning him again. She didn't want to ask this question, but had to know.

"My father was the ring leader, but did he ever take any of those kidnapped for himself?" Luci held her breath as she waited. She knew the answer when Silas looked down at his hands, but she had to hear him say it.

"Yes, he kept some of them. Both vampires and shifters, only females." Silas didn't want her to ask anymore. He knew it would hurt her if she knew the rest. Luci, however, wouldn't let it go.

"What did he do with them?" She whispered as she felt a chill go down her spine. Her dad was not anywhere near the man she thought he was.

"He has a storage unit where he keeps them to do whatever he wants with them. He forces them to have sex with him or with each other while he watches. When he gets tired of them, he has someone kill them and get rid of the bodies." Whatever love Luci had for her father evaporated. There was nothing left of her feelings for him other than pure hatred.

"Was anyone else involved besides you, Nolan, and Damien?" Xavier asked as he took Luci's hand under the table.

"Nolan has an assistant named Chad who's involved in the business, but Nolan uses him mostly to clean up the human women he's killed when he's needed blood. Other than him, the men we use to kidnap people constantly changes. Nolan will hire them to do one job, pay them, and let them go. None of them know anything about what we are doing; they just help with the kidnapping."

Silas would gladly tell them anything they wanted to know. He never cared for this business, but Nolan and Damien paid him well. He felt relieved to finally get everything off his chest.

"Thank you for being honest with us. You can have the rest of the bottle. Your friend Nolan will be left to rot. We'll be back to let you know your punishment." Xavier stood up and pulled Luci with him. Silas stopped them before they walked out.

"I'm truly sorry about everything. I didn't want to kidnap Luci or Alessandra. I told Nolan to let it go, but he wouldn't listen. I'll accept whatever punishment you give me. Thank you for the blood." Xavier nodded at him as he and Luci left the room.

"I can't forgive him for his involvement, but his apology did seem genuine. I think Nolan and my dad were pulling all the strings. Let's think before we decide his fate." Luci was ready to leave the dungeons; they gave her the creeps.

"Okay, we'll talk about it later. Let's go to our room now so you can call Janie. Make it sound like you're just checking up on her and see if you hear anything in her voice that concerns you." Xavier and Luci walked into the palace and up to their room.

"When Janie and I would go to a club, we always used a safe word, so if one of us was in trouble, we would text it or say it depending on where the other was. I'll listen to see if Janie says it while we're talking. I'm positive that would be her way of telling me that something was wrong." Xavier rubbed Luci's back as they sat down on the couch, and she grabbed her phone.

"What was the safe word?" He saw Luci give a small smile.

"Popcorn. We thought it was so random that we wouldn't say it by accident." Xavier hugged her as she dialed Janie's number. She put the phone on speaker so he could hear, too.

"Hello." Luci could already tell that something was wrong. Janie didn't sound like her usual upbeat self. She sounded like she'd been crying.

"Hi Janie, it's Luci. I was calling to see how mated life is treating you." Luci felt her throat tighten when she heard Janie sniffle.

"Oh, Luci, it's so good to hear your voice. I really like Italy, but they don't have enough popcorn."