Captivated (An Affliction Novel) (24 page)

My eyes darted in the darkness, trying to pick up any form that looked like it could be Dean. My breathing quickened. I saw nothing, even the dull lights were my traitors tonight. I had to go to Dean. I had to help him.

“Stop it Shane! Why are you doing this! Stop it!” I screamed in his ear.

Then he came to a stop. Shane set me on the ground without letting go of my arm. His perfection didn’t transfix me this time. His hypnotic ways of convincing me was not going to work with the anger I had. I hated him. I hated the white of his skin. The softness of his lips. I grew angrier at the memory of when he kissed my hand. He sent those pale people to hurt Dean and I hated him for it.

The last person that stood with us was the hedgehog. He didn’t look as scared as the others. He probably thought there was nothing more to worry about since Dean wasn’t coming. His eyes were black with a gleam of red, more like a maroon color. Those eyes studied me appreciably, like he just found a lost princess. He caught my eyes and looked shocked at first. Then a smile slowly formed on his face. Between those lips appeared teeth made from the purest white. That’s not what stunned me. It was after the teeth were exposed when he smiled a little wider. I blinked with surprise at the sight of the two long fangs that looked like their only purpose was to shred things to pieces…
vampires.

I gasped and turned my astonished gaze to Shane. Asking him with my eyes if what I saw was really what I saw. He understood my silent language and nodded his head as he exposed his teeth. Then his canines extended out to two sharpened fangs. I had to get away. I crunched my fist and swung at Shane’s face as hard as I could. His head jerked to the side with the impact, but it didn’t look like it hurt him. I frantically pulled my arm to release his hold and swung at him some more. Nothing was working. I screamed and yelled even though my hoarse voice wasn’t loud enough.

Shane turned to the hedgehog. “Stay here and guard the entrance. He cannot find out where we’re taking her.”

I quit my struggling to be able to hear what they were saying.

“I don’t think he’s still alive. He would have been here by now.” Said the hedgehog.

“Don’t argue with me. He’s strong. Never underestimate Dean.” Shane said fiercely. Then he turned his attention to me. “You’ll lead him right to us with your screaming. You leave me no choice.” Shane said grimly as he held my arms in place so I would quit swinging. He nodded his head once to the hedgehog then looked away.

“No choice? What are you gonna-” A crash came to the back of my head. So many colors were fighting to stay visible then they quickly faded. All I saw next was blackness.

hen I opened my eyes, Shane was looking down at me. His eyes held a sort of excitement. His smile was mischievous. His silver hair fell elegantly down as he leaned in closer to me. Even with the dim lighting in this room, I could still see the paleness of his skin. For a moment, I thought this was a dream. One of those dreams you wake up from then when you go back to sleep and it continues. I was kidnapped by vampires and knocked out. Now I was here with Shane. My face was hurting, especially my nose. I reached up to feel it and it stung on contact. I moaned and quickly pulled my hand away.

“Sorry about that.” Shane said as he reached his arm down to help me up. “I had someone punch you to knock you out and you fell face first to the floor.”

“Sonic?” I mumbled out as I cleared my throat. The one with the slick black hair that looked like Sonic the Hedge Hog. I never saw it coming.

“Who?” Asked Shane with a curious smile. He was acting so like himself, like this was a normal day. A normal conversation. Was this even real? I felt my head rushing as I rose to my feet. A dizzying feeling came strong.

“Whoa now. You should sit back down.” Shane guided me back to a seating position. I didn’t realize this before, but I was on a bed, the softest bed I ever sat on. After my vision focused in the dim lighting of the room, I began to look around. Next to the blacked out window, there was a large plant that reached up to the ceiling. It didn’t look real. A real plant wouldn’t be able to survive in such darkness. Each nightstand had a lamp on it. The lamps looked like they were golden. Not made out of it, but the color of it. There was a dresser against the opposite wall of the bed. It had statues of heads with shoulders, and they had no bodies.

Shane watched me looking around, still with that glee of excitement in his eyes. “This is our Roman themed room. You like it?”

Why was I sitting in a Roman themed room with Shane? And just then…at that very moment a rush of remembrance came to me. This wasn’t a dream. All this was really happening.

“WHERE’S DEAN!” I shouted as I shot up.

Shane’s smile faded, but suddenly formed again in a matter of seconds. “Hopefully dead.”

I shoved Shane and bolted for the door. Before I could even reach it, he was standing before it. Holding his hands out in front of him, signaling me to halt.

“Mindy…you can’t escape.” Shane said matter -of-factly.

“What the heck are you doing Shane! You can’t just kidnap me! Get out of my way!” I shouted in his face. “I have to go look for Dean!”

     Shane nodded his head and took a step towards me. I stepped back, but in a quick motion he gripped my arms. It was gentle the way he did it, like he was trying not to hurt me. Then, he guided me towards the bed again and sat me down. I struggled against his hold on me, but I couldn’t manage to budge an inch. Shane lowered himself to eye level with me and took a quick meaningless breath.

“Deans dead. Believe me, he would have been here a long time ago if he was alive. He’s like the terminator.” Shane said.

I gulped at the knot forming in my throat. “You killed him!” I accused. He was only holding onto my arms, which meant my feet were loose, so I started kicking at Shane. He jerked his body away from me so he wouldn’t get kicked releasing my arms in the process. Anger took over me; it was a horrible feeling that controlled my actions. I started swinging at Shane and smacking him. He didn’t hit back. He only blocked himself and backed away. I followed and shoved him against the wall, smacking at his chest until I was exhausted.

I stepped back huffing with tears in my eyes. The tears poured out of my eyes and I covered my face with my hands to have a little privacy from Shane. I couldn’t believe Dean was dead. We weren’t together anymore. He didn’t want me, but I still was in love with him. I couldn’t believe I was left in a world without him. A picture of his smile and his bright eyes popped in my head. And the way he kissed me the first time behind the waterfall. It wasn’t a full blown make-out kiss, but something that meant so much more. The way he stroked my hair out of my face and kissed my forehead. A gesture that I treasured more than he would ever know. I sobbed and yelled out in anger and desperation. Then I felt Shane wrap his arms around me in an embrace to calm me down. Immediately, I broke his hold by waving out my arms and I shoved him away from me. “Don’t touch me!” I yelled out to him.

For the first time, I saw him frown. It looked full of meaning, as if he were slightly saddened by my outburst. “Don’t tell me you feel that much for him?”

My crying was calmed by my anger. I only stared at him as tears continued to rush down my face.

Shane studied me. “You loved him?” He asked with the same frown on his lips. I still did not answer. After studying my face for what seemed like a very long moment, he got his answer. I caught his eyebrows scrunching together as he turned towards the door. Shane opened it and stood at the entrance without looking at me. “Call out my name if you need me. I’ll be right outside.” Then he shut the door softly behind him.

I shuddered when the knob clicked shut.

HE SUN WAS BEGINNING TO RISE; I had never been more pissed to see it cast its light on everything. Usually it was because it scared off the vampires crawling around. Anything that prevented me from killing them was sure to be on my bad side. Today, this morning, it was different. The sun meant that too many hours had passed since my Lina was taken.

I stomped across the grass wanting whatever bug or living thing that was under my foot to die with the impact. I would find no vampires with the sun scaring them off. The only one that was able to give up Lina’s location was a pathetic sack of shit that got sent back to guard the forest entrance. I should have killed him for making me lose the last chance I had of catching up to them.

I stared at the waterfall. A wince of pain shot me in the gut. Just yesterday, Lina was here with me, bandaging my cut. How badly I wanted to reach down and stroke her hair. Her hair was as wild and fierce as the fire she ignited in me. I remembered her looking up at me with hope and pain in her beautiful eyes. She should have never felt anything other than happiness and because of me…she was broken.

I was running out of time. I jumped on my bike and headed home. I walked through the front door and swung it hard behind me. The door hit the wooden frame with a strong impact. I would have to fix the cracked panels later. I should have stepped lightly down the wooden steps of the basement to prevent cracking them. I hadn’t dealt with this rage in a long time. Everything in my path was bound to get crumbled. I took my shirt off and balled it up. I paced back and forth in front of the thing, waiting for it to speak. All the black haired porcupine did was snarl, a soft warning snarl. The kind I imagined a pathetic kitten making with no effect on the menacing beast that stood before it. His jet black hair was slicked back into spikes last night. Now, most of it was missing patches and soaked in blood. His blood of course. The deep red eyes were staring at me with hatred that tried to cover up the fear. I threw my balled up shirt at his face. A split second of not looking at the thing was better than nothing. I grabbed a chair and flipped it around so that I could straddle it. I faced him with my arms resting on the backrest. He didn’t look too comfortable. Had he been a human, his hands and feet would have lost circulation by now. Each hand was tied against an armrest. The rope drilled into that pale skin so tight that it was beginning to look like it was one with the skin.  

“Where is she?” I growled expecting an immediate answer.

“I can’t tell you! He’ll kill me!” He shrieked. “Come on. Let me go.” The thing pleaded. Its slanted eyes no longer held the fake hatred, it was much too consumed in terror.

“Where is she?” I asked savagely. I ran out of patience. This was the last time I was planning on wasting my breath on the vampire if he didn’t cough up anything to my interest.

“Where’s Crystal? I didn’t see her.” The thing asked me.

“If you’re referring to one of the females that attacked me…I killed one. NOW TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!” I roared in his face like a drill sergeant would to a soldier.

“Did you kill the one with the long black hair? Was she Asian?” The thing’s voice exploded out of him in desperation. “Those marks on your arm…there’s two of them. Is it true what they say? You finished off two clans? What were they called?”

I didn’t answer. He thought the skinny one that ran away was more important than my Lina. Not acceptable. And he was asking too many useless questions. It was time to get rid of this garbage I had sitting in my basement. I wasn’t sure how I was going to kill this one. Sure, I knew different techniques, but which one did he deserve? I looked over at the window. The screen was down blocking the sun out completely. The only light we had was the one coming from the tiny lamp next to the door.

“Why are you staring at the window? Are you going to-” When he came to the realization of his fate, he tried jumping out of the chair and the tight rope that constricted him from succeeding. “Please!” The thing cried out hysterically.

I didn’t care to listen anymore. He wasn’t going to tell me anything about Lina’s location, so there was no use for his existence anymore. I stalked over to the window and raised my hand to the curtain.

“I found it! I know where she is!” A voice called out in excitement.

“Don’t toy with me Markus.” I warned as I lowered my hand.

Markus ran down the stairs and headed to the washer and dryer pulling a folded paper out of his back pocket. He waved me over, but I was already standing beside him. He jumped a little when he realized I was already there. Markus shook the moment off and unfolded the paper setting it on the washer.