27. Willow
Twenty Seven
Willow
“ H ow could you!” Willow shouted as she slammed both palms into Gage’s shoulder. He had somehow managed to wrangle her back into his truck and was speeding toward her apartment. “You left your friends to die!”
“Enough, Willow.” His voice came out rough but quiet. He kept one hand on the steering wheel as he grabbed both of her hands when she tried to hit him again.
“That was a car full of vampires, they may end up bruised up a bit, but they will survive the impact. I had to get you out of there, you’re the one who could get hurt.”
“But what about Marla?”
Gage’s face turned tight as he dropped her hands lightly and returned his full attention to the road. “When we get to your apartment, you have exactly two minutes to grab that stupid rabbit and whatever clothes you might need for a few days.”
She clenched her jaw and stared at him before responding. “Don’t ignore me. What about Marla? ”
“I don’t know, okay? Matteo is with her. I trust him to make the right judgement on what to do with her.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Gage sighed, his jaw clenching and unclenching.
“What does that mean?” She asked again, her voice breaking.
“You and I both know no human would survive that crash. He has the two options of letting her die or turning her if there’s time. If she died on impact, then there’s no way of saving her.” His voice grew quieter. “I’m sorry Willow. I’m so fucking sorry.”
She wiped the tears that were rolling down her face. She wanted to stomp her feet like a child and scream at the unfairness of it all. She’d finally found a place she could settle down, finally found friends and a community that treated her well, finally was able to live a life she was comfortable with, but it was all being taken away from her. Marla deserved so much better than to die in a horrible, intentional car crash.
Willow could still smell the burnt smell of rubber and gasoline and feel the cold metal of the door handle that wouldn’t budge in her hand. She started to picture Marla all twisted and bloodied, crumpled up in her seat like a broken little doll forgotten by her child master. Her heart began to race and her hands went numb.
“You’re going to kill him, right?” She mumbled out in between her deep breaths.
“I won’t stop until I have his blood splattered all around me.”
“Can I watch?”
“Would it help?”
“More than you know.”
They rode the rest of the way in silence, Gage sailing through red lights whenever it was safe to do so and Willow focusing her full attention on slowing down her heart rate. When he pulled into her parking lot, he hesitated before unlocking the door .
“Maybe it would be better if I went up and left you in here. You can keep the doors locked and drive away if anything happens.”
She shook her head. “It would be quicker if I went up there, Snickers doesn’t let anyone except me hold him. I’ll only be two minutes, keep the truck running.”
“Two minutes. That’s all you get before I come busting the door down, okay? I’m setting the timer now.”
Willow opened her door, but turned back to place a quick kiss on his lips. He ended up grabbing her by the hair as she tried to pull away and forced her mouth back onto his, deepening the kiss to something much more passionate.
“Two. Minutes,” he growled between her lips before letting her go.
She ran up to her front door and unlocked it with more grace than she thought she had. Her panic had subsided and was replaced with a chilling calmness and intense focus. She already had everything mapped out in her head: she would start in her bedroom and grab her duffle bag, a handful of underwear, whatever clothing items were within reach, then scoop up her toothbrush on her way back to the living room to grab the pet carrier that was stored near the rabbit food, ending with shoving her confused rabbit into the carrier before making a beeline back to the truck.
She made it three steps into her apartment before her gut instinct was acting up again, urging her to leave. But her love for her rabbit overrode it and she continued back to her bedroom. Her focus gave her blinders and she saw nothing except the plan in her head.
Her duffle bag was stuffed and thrown across her shoulder in a matter of seconds and she whipped around the corner into her bathroom. She shoved her deodorant and hairbrush into a pocket, not looking up as she hurried into her living room.
“Hello Willow,” a deep voice called to her.
She snapped her head up. There on her couch was Waldo’s bulky figure, stroking the rabbit that was frozen still in his arms.
After taking a moment to process, she managed to squeeze out a whispered sentence. “Gage is downstairs.”
“I know, I saw his truck idling out there. How long do you think he will wait before he comes looking for you?”
“Two minutes.”
Something within her snapped. All the unfairness and loss she felt turned into blind rage.
Deep down she knew she couldn’t kill him by herself, but she was damn sure she could fend him off for the last minute until Gage came up and finished the job. She dropped her duffle bag to the floor and ran into her kitchen, tearing open a drawer to pull out her serrated bread knife. Part of her wanted to go for the more intimidating chef’s knife, but another dark, and more twisted, part of her wanted to feel the resistance of the blade as she sawed it into his arm.
Her voice came out strong and unwavering. “You don’t scare me, Waldo. Quite frankly, you pissed me off to the point that I want to see what your blood looks like as it pools onto my carpet.”
He responded to her bravery with a bored lilt to his voice. “Sounds like that would be a bitch to clean. Also, the name is Jesse James. Don’t start acting like your little troupe of vermin and call me that stupid name. You’re better than that. I don’t see why you continue to associate with them.”
“Would you rather have me associate with you ? A man who enjoys killing innocent people and bullying other territories? What has Gage ever done to you that you keep harassing him and trying to destroy his home?”
“The only thing Gage has done is be weaker than me. Stealing Venice and killing humans both here and in Daytona has just been for fun. There’s nothing better than rubbing salt in someone’s wound.”
He smiled with a dead look in his eyes. “Life is all about survival of the fittest, Willow. The people we kill are not innocent—there is not one single person on this planet who is fully sin-free. We simply kill strangers as a means to survive. We need their blood, and if we catch them, that just means it was their destiny to die by my hands.”
His smile fell and he put his hand around Snicker’s neck, squeezing it hard enough that the rabbit began to buck in his arms.
“Let go of him!” She screeched, and ran at him with the knife held high over her head.
Waldo instantly dropped the rabbit, who was gone within an instant back into his cage, and wrapped his hand around her wrist. The two froze as they heard Gage’s truck door slam shut and angry footsteps run up the stairs.
“You’re about to get fucked up,” she snarled into his face.
“That’s what you think. He couldn’t beat me last time and he sure as hell won’t beat me now.”
He ripped the knife out of her hand, then picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. Almost in unison, as Gage threw open the front door, Waldo ripped open the patio door and jumped from the balcony, landing on the ground with a heavy thud. He did not even wince before running off toward a black SUV that was idling in an alleyway nearby.
“Gage!” Willow screamed with all of her might, but was shoved into the SUV before she could hear him call her name back.
Two men were sitting up front and the one behind the wheel hit the gas before Waldo had fully shut the door. Willow was left watching Gage lean over the balcony railing, watching her as she disappeared into the night.
“Let me go!” Willow screamed into Waldo’s face. She began beating her fists against his arms as he tried to tie her up.
“Oh, we have a feisty one, boys. I hope you like a challenge.” He grinned to the two up front .
The driver, a lanky man with short, dark hair and a full beard, peered at her from the rearview mirror and smirked while the other one—who was built identical to him except with copper hair and no beard—seemed to ignore her and cracked open his window to light a cigarette. He had a smattering of light freckles that coated his face and arms, and his hair was gelled back so that no strand was out of place.
Willow paused her struggle and gaped at the freckled man. “I’ve seen you before, you’ve been in my coffee shop.” She turned her attention to the driver. “And you, you look familiar, too. Have you both been in my shop?”
The bearded one shook his head. “No darling, you shook your ass next to me on the dance floor of the Pink Flamingo Club. And what a fine ass that was. I can’t want to get it underneath me later.” His dark laugh came out as a growl, and the hair on her arms stood on end. “How do you think Jesse James found out Gage was into you? He had us spying on you this whole time.”
Waldo took advantage of her pause to grab both of her wrists and tie them behind her back. She tried to ram her shoulder into Waldo’s neck, but he wrapped his hand into her hair and slammed her head down against the center console. She whimpered as her eyes began to water from the impact, and felt the start of a bruise on her right cheekbone, which had taken most of the hit.
This wasn’t the first time a man had bruised her, though. The abuse she lived through taught her how to be strong. She would be damned before giving him a sense of her fear.
“Stop fighting me and I won’t have to destroy that pretty face of yours. Although I might still do that anyway, just so Gage can never look at you again. Who could love a girl missing a nose and a bashed in skull?”
Willow glared and resisted the urge to spit in his face. “He’s going to kill you when he finds me. ”
“I’m sure he will try, but the thing is, he’s not going to find us. Your boys like to think they’re sneaky and have their shit together, but they really don’t. I knew damn well him and his ass-fucking cousin were in Miami trying to discover my secret. It’s a shame those dumb bitches they ran into at the bar told them about the compound, but at least they didn’t tell them where exactly it’s located.” He smiled. “They paid their price for betraying their savior, though. I made sure to make an example out of them, and beheaded them before they went back home. And I guess I did you a favor, too, because I killed the little slut Gage was trying to sleep with. You’re welcome.”
“I never would have wanted that!”
He continued, completely ignoring her. “But don’t you worry your cute little face off.” She jerked away as he pinched her cheek. “You’ll get to see my masterpiece that’s taken me years to build, because that’s where we’re going. You should feel special because my own father never even got to see it. I made sure to keep it hidden from him. It was pretty easy, he wasn’t the brightest man. Do you know how easy it was to set up his death?”
He stared at her like he was waiting for an actual response. She didn’t give in and sat in silence.
“I’ll give you a hint: it was easier than making chocolate milk. All I had to do was get some associates killed, fake cry about my dead friends, then I knew he would get revenge. I was kind of worried that Clay wouldn’t have the balls to kill him, he always likes to play pacifist, but I knew he had the physical strength. That’s one thing I’ll admit to, Clay can fucking fight. Too bad his son didn’t inherit any of that grit.”
The car sped up as they merged onto an expressway. Waldo watched a road sign fly by and nodded to himself. “Speaking of my compound, I don’t want you knowing how to get there. One can never be too careful. Please don’t mind as I make sure you’re incapacitated.”
Before she could even blink, he used his full force to knock her head against the console again. A swift darkness fell over her, and she crumpled into his lap.
????
She dreamed of nothing but empty darkness. It felt like she was trapped underground, being held down by ice-cold chains which refused to let her move an inch. Gage’s voice was calling for her, the sound getting closer and closer, but when she attempted to scream she found she couldn’t open her mouth. His voice sailed over her, but she couldn’t see him and he couldn’t see her. She wanted to weep as his voice started to sound distant again.
She was brought out of her nightmare with the feeling of being thrown down. Once she fully regained consciousness, she found herself laying on a small, stiff cot and staring up at an off-white paneled ceiling that reminded her of the one in her dentist’s office. For a second she thought she was actually there, with her head fuzzy and tight feeling like she had just woken up from anesthesia and her jaw hurting like a tooth had recently been pulled.
She sat up and saw the dark wood paneling around her. She remembered she was at some compound, possibly in the middle of nowhere, with no one knowing where she was located.
She quickly checked her pockets for her phone, but was unsurprised to find that Waldo had taken it. She scanned her surroundings to find anything to use as a weapon, but there was nothing in the room except the cot, a white plastic folding table, and a matching chair. She debated about pulling a wrestling stunt and hitting whoever walked into the room with the chair, but realized the flimsy plastic would easily break over a vampire’s head. Plus, there was the slight inconvenience of the handcuff that was currently keeping her left arm stuck to the cot.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to imagine what advice her mother would give in this situation. Unfortunately, due to either the pounding headache that was forming or the pure terror she was trying to ignore, her mother felt very far away and her voice never formed in Willow’s mind.
With her free hand, she rubbed circles on her temple and focused on her breathing. Deep down she knew Gage would save her, because that was how all stories ended. The villain would capture the girl, the hero would break in and kick ass, the girl would be whisked away by the handsome, blond hero, only to be fucked into a blissful oblivion. And to top it off, the girl’s best friend would have survived the car accident and everything would go back to normal with them making coffee together at their coffee house.
Tears streamed down her face as she dreamed the fantasy. She kept repeating in her mind that everything would be okay. Her inner mantra picked up pace as the door to her room unlocked and a tall, burly woman walked in, her frizzy, red hair pulled back into a ponytail. She looked as if she could have been a linebacker, but the scowl on her face made it seem like wrestling was more her style.
“Jesse James is asking for you,” she grunted. She pulled out a set of keys from her jeans pockets.
“What does he want?” Willow whispered in a tone that countered the woman’s rich baritone.
She smirked, but the smile did not meet her eyes. Willow saw a flash of a pointed white tooth gleaming behind her thick, pink lips. “You’ll see.”
Willow’s headache turned into a full-blown migraine as she was yanked off the cot by her arm. She could tell this was not the woman’s first time using handcuffs as she swiftly unlocked them and twisted Willow’s arms behind her back to re-cuff them together in one fluid movement.
The two walked in silence down a narrow hallway and through a large room that was as empty as the previous one. It wasn’t until they were outside that Willow realized she was being held in a trailer that looked like it was from the 1990’s. Rust and decay ate away the skirt around the base, revealing cracked cinderblocks holding up the structure, and most of the windows were busted out and replaced with plywood.
“Man, they really spared no expense for my holding cell, huh?” Willow mumbled under her breath.
The linebacker ignored her and continued pulling her through the compound. Similar trailers were set up in rows around hers, but most of them still held actual windows and decks with outdoor furniture. There were some that even had small gardens in front. Two kids on bikes rolled past them and they turned to look, mouths gaping open, with glistening fangs catching the moonlight.
Willow swallowed back the sadness that was blossoming at the idea of children so young being converted into vampires. Never being able to grow up. Never being able to be true adults.
“What is this place?” She asked.
Yet again, the woman ignored her. The further they walked through the compound, the more the trailers began to change. They went from rickety metal boxes to more sturdy double-wides, and eventually modular ranch-style homes complete with white picket fences and golden retrievers panting at her through the slats. They finally stopped in front of a Tudor-style house that stood out against the manufactured homes. Instead of taking her up the cement stairs to the front door, the woman pulled her to the attached garage and punched in a code that caused the door to lift slowly. The loud groaning noise caused Willow’s heart to start racing, and her body went cold.
Eventually the door fully opened to reveal Waldo, reclining in the middle of a plush leather couch, with the two men from the SUV sitting on the ground in front of him. The freckled man was smoking another cigarette and the bearded man was hunched over with his head propped in his hand and his arm on his knee. A bored look was across both of their faces, like they had been waiting for a while.
A serpentine smile broke out across Waldo’s face. “Oh good, you’re up. I was worried we would have to wait until tomorrow, because I wouldn’t want you to miss this. Go ahead and chain her up over there.”
Waldo nodded to a water heater that was in the corner of the garage, and the woman once again swiftly unlocked the cuffs to attach her to the metal pipe running up the side of it. As soon as she secured the cuffs, she left the garage without even glancing at Willow.
“So how do you like my masterpiece? It’s taken me years to develop a vampire-only community. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s the biggest community in the United States. I was influenced by Russia—they have communities much like this only on a grander scale, whole towns only consisting of vampires. It sounded like a paradise. No more hiding what we are or having to deal with hate and prejudice. So, I decided to create my own community. In exchange for protection and a slice of paradise, all my members must do is devote themselves to me.”
“It sounds like a cult.” She said.
“Call it what you will, but many call it a home.”
Willow was angled so that she could still see the two men sitting at the foot of what appeared to be their master. Waldo leaned forward and propped his arms on his knees. The men sat up straight, eagerness replacing the bearded one’s bored expression. The freckled man’s expression did not change, but he did quickly inhale the rest of his cigarette, crushing it out into the cement next to him. A slow trail of smoke escaped his lips as his eyes became fixated on a golden flask that Waldo retrieved from next to him on the couch.
“As you may or may not know, each vampire family has a unique container for the head vampire’s blood. This flask was handed down from my great-great-grandfather and has eventually made its way to me—” his tone shifted to a sarcastic one “—thanks to the passing of my dear old dad.”
He held up the flask and let the light reflect off its iridescent golden exterior. Even from the distance Willow was at, she could see intricate script carved into it.
“My blood allows me to become a god, and with it I shall grant you both eternal life for your commitment to me. Much like His son, you will take communion and drink of my blood to be welcomed into my holy gates.”
Willow’s mouth went dry and she tried to stop from shaking so that her cuff did not rattle against the pipe. She watched as Waldo tipped the flask into each man’s mouth to release a small trickle of red liquid.
“Welcome to eternity,” he whispered.
Both men crumpled to the ground and began screaming and thrashing as if Waldo had doused them in gasoline and dropped a match.