Black And Blue (Quentin Black Mystery #5) (44 page)

She might be right.

Clinically, I could see why she might think that. I could objectively review the things I’d said, how I’d been acting, enough that I understood her fear.

The problem was, I didn’t really care.

Twenty-Three

PAY THE PIPER

BLACK DIDN’T HAVE long to wait when he got back to the prison.

They didn’t even take him to his cell.

Pulling the bag off his head even as the van crunched to a stop on the gravel of the prison parking lot, they opened the van doors and unlocked his ankles before leading him inside. He didn’t pass through any of the common rooms or the cell blocks, either.

They took him straight to a windowless cement room.

It definitely wasn’t a prison visiting room. There were no bulletproof glass windows, no partitions, no chairs. It was just a blank, windowless room with two doors, one on either side of the featureless space. After the guards brought him there, they left him, locking the door behind them without a word.

Black stood there, looking around at the four walls.

He knew Brick had to be behind this.

Still, something about it felt off, like something had changed. He tangibly felt a sense of apprehension, like things were moving faster now.

He still stood there, thinking about that, when the second door in the cement room, the one on the opposite side from where he’d come in, abruptly opened.

Black found himself backing off when five guards walked in holding batons and what looked like electrical prods, like they’d used on Puzzle in the lab.

“What the fuck!” Black blurted. He’d already fallen to a fighting crouch, preparing to defend himself, even with his hands cuffed. “What is this?” he growled. “What did I do?”

A familiar voice rose from behind the row of kevlar.

“You didn’t do anything, Mr. Black. Please do not overexcite yourself. The equipment is simply a precaution... I assure you.”

The familiar, New Orleans-accented voice of Brick made Black’s muscles tense so hard they hurt. He fought a sudden swell of rage, even as he looked for the vampire among the faces. He found him at once, wearing another black suit like the one he’d worn in their first meeting.

“All right, boys,” Brick drawled. “Bring him along.”
 

He held up his wrist and tapped the face of his watch pointedly with the index finger of his other hand.

“Tick-tock, my friends,” he said, still tapping. “Time to pay the piper. And we must hurry. Mrs. Black is waiting, and she will
not
abide tardiness.”

Black stiffened at the mention of Miriam.

It threw him enough that he only stood there when two of the guards grabbed hold of his cuffed arms and began leading him forward out of the room. They led him right up to Brick, who was already re-entering the corridor on the other side.

Brick looked back over his shoulder as he walked, smiling at Black, even as he looked him over with a more critical eye. Avoiding that appraising stare, Black glanced at the guards holding him, and for the first time, he noticed the faces lurking behind those helmets and shields.

Both had the same glass-like, tinted red eyes as Brick and Puzzle. Looking around at the rest of them, Black realized all of them did.

He was surrounding by fucking vampires.

That panic he’d felt when they first came at him in the room resurfaced in a rush. Not panic. Survival. He kicked into fight or flight so quickly that adrenaline shook his arms and hands.

Mr. Brick must have felt the change, or seen some hint of it in his expression.

“There, there, Quentin,” Brick said. His voice was soothing, but firm. “Calm yourself... you are quite safe, I assure you. This is why I thought perhaps we needed to approach you with some consideration and caution. I did not wish you to... overreact... given where you’ve been staying these past ten days, and your probable experiences while there.”

Black watched those red eyes flicker over him languorously, right before his pupils noticeably dilated. Brick gave him a wolfish smile and Black tensed more.

“I bet you were... popular there. You were probably quite the belle of the ball.”

Black’s voice came out in a snarl. “What is this? Where are you taking me?”

He could practically feel the other vampires looking him over now too, smelling him maybe. His reaction was animal, visceral, like a zebra finding himself surrounded by lions.

Some less-rational part of his mind told him they were going to bolt him down to another padded table and drain him dry.

“What do I want?” Brick raised an eyebrow at him. “You know what I want, Mr. Black. We have an arrangement you and I. But your wife has grown quite impatient, I’m afraid, so I’ve been forced to speed up the timeline somewhat. Which is no matter to me, honestly... as long as you’ve gotten us the intelligence we need, I see no reason to prolong this ordeal for any of us, yourself and your wife included.”

Glancing over his shoulder at Black again, his face erupted in a delighted grin, right before he let out a happy laugh.
 

“Your Miriam, she is quite the
firecracker
, isn’t she though, Mr. Black? And such a beautiful woman... photographs really don’t do her justice. No, they do not do her justice at all.” He motioned towards his own face. “Some element of that
fire
missing... am I right?”

Black stared at him, putting his words together in shock. Heat bloomed in his chest, running adrenaline to the ends of his fingers, making his feet stumble in their steps.

Brick went on speaking as if he didn’t notice.

“...The combination must keep things interesting on the home front, I must say... and in the bedroom. I find myself quite envious of you, Mr. Black, in more ways than one.” That predatory smile grew. “I confess I would have
loved
to go toe-to-toe with her in a real way, but now is definitely not the time for such indulgences. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I did not bring you here to be cruel... but to obtain your assistance in a task I knew no other way to accomplish.”

He gave Black a more searching look, lifting an eyebrow.

“Do not worry, Mr. Black. Your wife is perfectly fine. I touched not a hair on her lovely head... although it was tempting, to be sure.”

Black didn’t answer. He continued to walk, stiff-legged, every muscle in his body tensed to rock. Still watching him warily, Brick went on in a more conciliatory voice.

“I suspect you can imagine now, why I felt this operation was so important to my people, having seen this torture facility for yourself?” His lip curled, and for the first time, a glimmer of real anger crossed his flawless countenance, lighting those scarlet-tinted eyes. “Imagine yourself in
our
shoes, if you would, Mr. Black... just for a moment, imagine if it was
your
people down there. A noble race, one older than the race of humans. Enslaved. Treated like vermin. Debased. Experimented on. Forced to beg for food from lesser beings, like stray dogs...”

His voice grew angrier the longer he spoke.

Black didn’t answer. His mind was bent on one thing, and one thing alone: getting out of here. Getting out of here and finding out what happened to his wife.

He’d think about what came after once he’d done that.

“I’ll get you inside,” he said to Brick. “Give you everything I found. Then I’m done.”

Brick looked at him, his lips pursing in a frown, perhaps because Black didn’t acknowledge his lament on the fate of his people. In the end he only nodded though.

“That is the deal we made, Mr. Black.”

The corridor ended on another metal door, one that opened out into the same parking lot he’d just been brought out of by the last set of delivery guys. A military grade truck stood there now, parked right up against the metal door, its open end under the shade of the roof.

Black followed them through those open doors, sitting on a bench when the two guards guided him there between them. He found himself stiffening when Brick motioned the guard to his right to move away. He stiffened more when Brick sat down right next to him.

The engine started in the truck, right as Brick turned to the guard next to him, clicking his fingers and motioning towards his belt.

The guard handed over a handcuff key, one of the long ones, like the prison guards used. Leaning over Black’s wrists, Brick used the key to unlock his handcuffs quickly and efficiently. He dropped them to the floor as soon as he had Black free of them.

Black rubbed his wrists as Brick tossed the handcuff key back at the guard, who caught it one-handed. Black tensed in the silence that followed, staring around warily at the red-tinted eyes watching him. Then he looked back at Brick.

“I should be sitting up front,” he said, blunt. “I have to feed you the directions piece by piece. I’ve got the map, but it’s times and directional changes... they had me hooded the whole way, and there were no windows.”

Brick studied his face for a moment, then nodded.

With that marionette-like grace he had, he smoothly regained his feet, crouching as he walked up to the front end of the truck bed, meaning the part nearest to the drivers. He pounded on the panel there, and after a short pause, the person on the other side opened it.

Brick turned, looking back at Black. He frowned when he realized Black hadn’t followed him, and motioned sharply for him to join him near the front.

More guards moved out of the way of the two of them. They rearranged seats around the back of the truck, making room for Black and Brick to sit right behind the driver and the vampire sitting shotgun. Black counted twenty of the vampire soldiers now.

“So sun doesn’t bother you?” Black said, turning towards Brick.

Brick stared at him. “What makes you say that?”

Black motioned towards the two drivers. “Them.”

Brick shook his head. “They are human, Mr. Black.”

Black frowned, looking at the drivers. He hadn’t noticed, but Brick was right. Either that, or they were the only two in that whole truck who bothered to wear contact lenses. At the thought, he glanced back at the sea of red eyes.

“So sun kills you, then?” he said.

Brick frowned at him for real that time. He seemed about to answer for a brief moment, then changed his mind, turning back towards the driver.

“Do whatever he says,” he said, waving a hand towards Black. “He’s going to tell you when to turn. When to stop. When to take a piss, possibly. Do everything he says. Understood?”

The driver nodded, giving Black a bare glance.

Black couldn’t help noting that Brick stayed out of the sun as he spoke to the two humans, remaining behind the metal plating separating the driver’s cab with the cargo area. So vampires really didn’t like the sun. Good to know.

Brick gave him another appraising look, then motioned towards his arm. His voice grew borderline apologetic.

“I have to check. You must understand this.”

Black stared back at him. “Check what?”

“I have to know if you’re telling the truth. About where you’re taking us. And I need to verify everything you experienced while inside that facility... and share it with my team so we can discuss an approach. It will be much better if I can see the layout for myself.”

Black looked at him. Then he looked back at the rest of the vampires in the truck. From the expressions on their faces, they’d just learned they were about to watch a porno.