Chapter 14 Sam
Sam
After about ten minutes, the driver pulled the car over, and I groaned as my head bashed against the hard plastic of the door again.
“Restrain her,” the driving goon barked from the front. “We need to get her in the trunk.”
“What the fuck, Evan?” the vampire alongside me whined. “Why don’t you do some of the work for a change?”
“I’m fucking driving, Tommy, you dickwad. Or do you need me to do everything?”
Rope wound around my wrists, Tommy’s big hands clumsy as he tried to bind them together.
“She’s too small. Hold her still for me.” The whine was still present in his tone.
The fucker. I wasn’t even moving. But Evan sighed in the front and got out of the car then slammed his displeasure shut with the door so hard that the whole vehicle rocked.
He opened the door by my head and dragged me roughly out, letting me fall to the ground as he yanked on me. “It’s not that hard. Look.” Then he bent down and expertly bound my ankles as I lay still for him, winded from the drop.
There was no point fighting back right now, anyway. These were vampires. They could kill me in a split second, or they could bleed me dry. I had to wait for them to take me to the second location. Maybe I’d have more luck there.
Evan bent and lifted me into his arms before slinging me over his shoulder.
“Jesus Christ, this one’s all bones,” he complained. “It’ll be like fucking a wooden plank with nails left in it.”
He walked around his car and popped the trunk before dumping me inside. Then he slammed it shut again and the engine started a short moment later.
The rope chafed against my wrists, and I rolled around a lot more back here, banging and scraping myself on the usual shit people kept in the trunks of their cars.
Everything was damp back here, and it smelled old and dead, so clearly these two fuckers kept things in their trunk that most people did not.
The road was mostly smooth, and the low-level rumble of the engine soothing, although the potholes we occasionally hit prevented sleep, which I was glad for because I needed to be alert.
They were vampires, but I needed to try to escape.
I couldn’t just surrender to my fate. I’d survived Esmé for this long, so I wasn’t about to roll over now.
An image of Kyle floated through my mind, and I tried to brush it away, but I couldn’t.
I wanted to stay alive now. I really wanted to live, and a big part of the reason was him.
It didn’t make any sense. I’d been resigned to my fate for so long, and I’d never let a man affect my reasoning like this…
But somehow, Kyle did. He made me want more. He made me want him.
Life suddenly seemed like the better option. For so long, I’d been resigned to my death, but now I was prepared to fight. Something about Kyle made me want to fight.
I struggled against the ropes at my wrists, looking for something to rub them against. And I needed to bust out a taillight, right? Right? That was still a thing? Signal to a car behind us or something.
Panic clouded my thoughts as I scuffed my feet over the interior of the trunk, looking for the right spot to kick. This was bad, so very bad.
The more the car lurched, the more disoriented I became. I rolled over as we went around a corner and my breathing come in spurts as I tried to catch enough air in my chest.
My thoughts seemed to slam into my mind, dizzying me, I couldn’t catch hold of those either.
The car began to slow, and I had no idea how long we’d been driving.
After we stopped completely, two doors slammed, rocking me as the car swayed from the impacts.
I held my breath as footsteps moved closer.
The trunk opened, and I blinked in the sudden light.
Rough hands grabbed me. It was Evan and Tommy, although I could barely see them as they stood backlit by the sun.
Panic burned the back of my throat. and my flight-or-fight response gave way to complete submission. I was frozen with fear.
They lifted me between them, and it was like that action reawakened my thoughts.
I still hadn’t thought of a concrete plan, so I went with kicking and screaming but it was a poor method to save myself. They quickly pinned me so that I remained still again, the hand that Evan wrapped over my mouth and nose was callused and smelled of motor oil.
The smell here was different than the city — a smell of something green and fresh and growing. Like life itself. Frogs croaked somewhere nearby, and the air was full of the sounds of crickets and birdsong.
This thrall wasn’t in Kansas anymore… and as much as fear thrummed through me, relief trickled in that maybe Esmé wouldn’t be able to demand a feed. But that led to anxiety because I’d need a fix of venom, and I didn’t exactly want to offer myself to either Evan or Tommy.
I stopped trying to wriggle and fight pretty quickly.
It was hotter here, and the weight of the air made unnecessary movement exhausting.
I couldn’t see my hair, but I could feel the frizz, like my hair was moving and shifting into a bigger ball of fuzz with every passing second.
My clothes grew damp and stuck to my skin, and the moisture-filled air was thick in my lungs.
I was hanging over Tommy’s back now, bouncing along like he was toting Santa’s sack or just some regular garbage, and I twisted to try to see where they were taking me.
A cabin with more gaps between the planks of wood than windows stood at the end of a path, and I sighed. Another hovel.
I couldn’t beat against Tommy with my fists as he walked, since my hands were behind my back, and I didn’t waste my energy screaming — we were in the middle of nowhere, and I needed to preserve what little energy I could.
Evan pushed the door to the shack open—because it really was only a shack.
Wind blowing in the wrong direction could bring it down in a heap of firewood.
Once we were inside, Tommy dumped me into a chair with unceremonious lack of care, and I winced as my shoulders pulled at my awkward landing and inability to break my fall.
They watched me for a moment.
“What the hell?” I started, but Tommy just smirked. “Where have you brought me? What am I doing here? What the hell…” I paused, thinking over what I’d just been about to ask. It wasn’t wise, but I went with it anyway. “What the hell will Esmé say?”
Evan snarled and smoothed his already greased back hair, but Tommy just laughed again, the sound unfriendly.
“Who do you think ordered this?” he said.
“Yeah, this was Esmé’s idea.” Evan was quick to interject his own statement, and he smiled smugly as he spoke.
Tommy cut him a glance like Evan needed to keep his damn mouth shut and let Tommy handle the talking.
“What?” I frowned then automatically rethought and tried to smooth out the crease in my brow, so it didn’t stick. It was a habit I’d picked up from Mom.
“Esmé told you to tie me up, put me in the trunk of a car, and drive me to the middle of nowhere?” I mean, it probably didn’t sound so far-fetched, but…
Yeah, I still didn’t understand why she’d go to these lengths to get me away from Kyle.
There were places in New Orleans where she could hide me, surely?
“Maybe not in those exact words,” Tommy muttered, and there was a gleam in his eye that suggested he and Evan had carried out Esmé’s instructions in the way that most appealed to them.
It didn’t surprise me. They were a pair of sadists and wannabe gangsters, both of them. I was lucky they’d only tied me up. Brock really was building an army of monsters.
“But why?” I knew why, but I needed to hear them say it.
Evan arched an eyebrow. “Because it’s naughty to run away,” he cooed.
I nodded. Yep. That was what I’d thought. Esmé had just reclaimed her pet and put me in timeout. But now the idea of belonging to someone burned bitterness and resentment through me, where before there had been mostly acceptance of the way my life would end.
“Don’t forget the fight.” Tommy looked at Evan expectantly. “We’re supposed to keep her safe during the attack.” He brushed my hair back from my face, and I shuddered.
Yeah. There was safe and there was safe… Their ideas of the what the word meant probably didn’t align with mine.
“Oh, yeah?” I tossed my head to dislodge Tommy’s fingers. “What’s going on?” I did my best to sound casual, like I didn’t really care.
But it wouldn’t have mattered how much I wanted to know. Tommy was so eager to tell me about it, he looked like a kid at Christmas. It wasn’t information he would have withheld just to fuck with me.
“The Duponts. We’re going after the Regent.” His smile grew wider, and his fangs descended as he rubbed his hands together, unable to conceal his glee at the idea. “We’re going to take him out.”
“Oh, yeah? And you two are here, missing out? Who did Brock take?” Again, I aimed for casual. After a small jab at their pride, of course.
Evan snarled again. “That fucking new guy.”
My chest hollowed, cold tricking through my torso. Kyle? He was the only new guy, right? If he was going out with Brock, he could be in danger.
“Hey.” I sat up as straight as I could and fumbled for the ends of the rope around my wrists. “Hey, if you let me go, I can help Esmé. She’d want that.” I nodded emphatically as I spoke, agreeing with myself as I willed them to agree with me too.
But Evan laughed and shook his head, and Tommy cackled along.
“Stupid thrall,” he grunted.
Then almost as one, they turned and walked to the door. The freaks.
As the door closed behind them, I remained sitting on the uncomfortable chair, my chafed wrists aching and the low glow of an old orange bulb doing absolutely nothing as it swung gently above me.
I rolled my ankles to try to keep the circulation in my legs going. They hadn’t strapped me down here, but what was I realistically going to do? Bounce all over the shack like some kind of deranged Tigger and enable my own escape by pogoing through a window?
There hadn’t been the noise of a car engine starting, so the guys were still outside somewhere, lurking in the bayou. Hopefully, they wouldn’t get hungry anytime soon. For all I knew, I was the only human in a fifty-mile radius.
Night had long since fallen and I’d just started to work at moving my hands to stop the numb feeling when apprehension tickled the back of my brain. Something was off. Something I couldn’t quite place. I looked at the door and froze as the prickle grew, stealing my breath.
This was weird. I was nervous about being in this shack with two vampires of exact whereabouts unknown outside the door, but this wasn’t that. The apprehension was foreign. Almost like it didn’t belong in my body. Almost like it belonged to someone else.
I shook my head, trying to dislodge it, but my chest tightened, and I struggled to breathe. There was certainty now — certainty and a degree of acceptance. I sucked in a breath as a wave of pain crashed over my skull, and I shrieked.
The door handle rattled, and Evan burst inside.
“What are you screaming at, woman?” he barked.
I screamed again as my head continued to ache. Was I dying? Was this it? A brain tumor? An aneurysm? I sighed, releasing a long breath. Maybe this was the better way. Maybe it was the quickest, kindest death.
My head throbbed like it might explode.
“Get her off that chair,” Evan ordered as Tommy ran toward me. “Lay her on the floor. We need to find out what she’s doing.”
“Esmé’s going to kill us,” Tommy groaned, his voice close to my ear as he lifted me from my seat and laid me on the floor.
“Well, fucking untie her!” Evan shoved his hand back and forth through his greased hair, ruffling it so it stood up in sharp spikes.
“Oh, shit, dude.” Tommy leaned over me and his movements were rough and careless as he jerked the ropes free, dragging them over my already sore skin.
I clutched my head as soon as the rope disappeared. The screams didn’t stop coming. I could barely draw breath. If this truly was death, it couldn’t come quick enough.
Shock caught my breath again and the feeling of being out of control, and then darkness claimed me.
My scalp still hurt. It burned like someone was ripping the skin clean off, and I squealed.
“Wake up, bitch.” Esmé’s voice permeated my confusion, and I forced my eyes open.
I reached to grasp Esmé’s hand where she held me by my hair, then slipped my fingers down the strands to try to stem the pain by holding closer to the roots.
“Esmé, stop.” I forced the words out, but her eyes glowed deeper red. “You’re hurting me.”
She bared her fangs, and her snarl filled the small space. “I should do more than hurt you.”
I shrank away and winced as my hair tugged again at the movement.
She leaned closer to me, and her breath was hot against my face as she spoke again.
“You’re mine. There is no room for anyone else.
Especially not that infiltrator, Kyle Durg.
It was never supposed to be real.” She emphasized his surname like it was a dirty word, and I flinched as she drew so close to revealing his deception in front of Tommy and Evan.
Her eyes glinted with knowing — she wasn’t stupid. She’d throw Kyle under the bus in a heartbeat to keep me in line.
I began to nod but Esmé stood, her grip still strong on me as she lifted me higher into the air before she drew her arm back. I swung like a pendulum before she released me, and I crashed into the rough wood wall opposite. My arm throbbed and I crumpled as I slid down to the floor.
She approached me, a growl on her lips, and I froze as I watched her. Not even a breath moved in or out of my chest as she almost glided across the space between us, her movements sinuous, a smile of seduction on her lips.
Only there would be no seduction. This was punishment.
“I would rather kill you than let Kyle have you,” she whispered as soon as she drew close enough for me to hear her. Her foot connected with my ribs first, and the impact forced a sound of pain from my lips.
The next kick was to my head, and soon I lost track as she struck me again and again and bent low to pummel me with her fists as well, landing strikes on my face and arms as I tried to protect my head.
Then everything stopped and my world hung, the silence almost painful as I waited for what was next.
Esmé swooped low, her mouth wide, and I closed my eyes, dread filling me instead of anticipation.
Pain burned through my whole body, using my veins and arteries as conduits as Esmé’s venom coursed down each of them. Nothing about this felt good, and I clamped my lips against a scream.
I knew exactly what it felt like to experience euphoria from a bite now, and I’d gotten that from Kyle. Never Esmé, who only inflicted her bites to hurt me in the same way she believed I’d already hurt her.
I lay back and let the venom drug me to sleep, hoping to somehow find Kyle in the darkness.