Finding Obscurity (22 page)

“I was laid off about six
month ago and had been taking a few small jobs that weren’t the greatest
choices, but they paid the bills – robbing convenience stores, stealing
paintings, or the occasional breaking and entering. When they offered me three
million dollars to kidnap you, how could I turn that down?”

Three million dollars to kidnap me?
Sure, I could understand the appeal of the offer, but usually if it’s
too good to be true, then it usually is. “If I try to save you and get you out
of this alive, will you promise me something?”

Joe stared at me for a
few seconds with the spoon suspended in midair. “Sure. What do I have to lose?”

I know he didn’t deserve
any sort of pity, but I mostly did this because of his children and the fact
that my family died before I got to know them. “Promise me that you’ll
straighten your life out and get a real job so you can be the best dad to your
kids.”

He nodded and fed me
another spoonful of soup. “I promise that if I live to get out of this
mess, that
I’ll be a better person.”

“That’s all I ask. I
can’t promise to get you out of here if push comes to shove, but I’ll try my
best. ”

He put the soup down on
the tray. “I’m sorry, but I have to put you out again. Say a prayer that I’ll
still be alive when you wake up.”

I nodded, and when the
needle stung my skin, I looked into his brown eyes. “I’ll pray to whoever will
listen.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry and
please forgive me that it took my life to hang in the balance to realize how
horrible I’ve been.”

I tried to nod at him but
my vision was fuzzy again. I blinked a few times, watching him go back up the
stairs with the sound of his feet echoing across the room like a herd of
elephants stomping around. I don’t know what they kept injecting me with, but I
passed out before I had another conscious thought.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

“You’re too softhearted.
You know that?” a soft voice whispered.

I blinked at the quiet
voice and shook my head, clearing the cobwebs from my drug-induced brain,
wondering if I was hearing things. It was weird that I hadn’t been able to
dream since I arrived, and I guaranteed it was because of the drugs or being
knocked unconscious. Blake had to be going bat-shit crazy that he couldn’t
reach into my dreams, and Ashton would be searching to the ends of the Earth
and back. What I wouldn’t give to listen to them have a pissing match over my
affections.
The voice said I was softhearted and maybe I
knew I had given Joe the benefit of the doubt, even though he probably would
let me down in the long run. I hoped his children at least looked up to the
guy, not knowing he was a bad man.

My mind was muddled and I struggled to blink away the daze. There
was a jerk on the ropes tying my hands before the rope fell away. I pulled my
hands forward and rubbed them together, trying to get rid of the pins and
needles. I came out of the haze like a drunk sobering at the sight of flashing
lights. Somebody was scuffling behind me and had released my hands, so I turned
my head to the side and saw Paige with a knife. I crab-walked until my back
slammed into the wall before noticing the dark stain down the front of her
shirt.

“Paige?”

She smirked, holding up the knife. I started to scream but she clamped
her hand over my mouth. “Shut it. Do you want to get caught?”

What in the hell? I glanced over the spot where the huddled body
used to be and it was empty, except for bloodstained concrete. She had to have
been the one who was curled into a little ball the whole time. I shook my head,
letting her know I didn’t want to be caught. She released my mouth slowly like
she was afraid I would scream again, but not before I felt those telltale signs
of sparks shooting all throughout my skin, showing me she was incredibly
powerful.
I didn’t see that one coming.

“We have to be as quiet as possible. Vampires can hear a mouse
fart a mile away, but lucky for us, Joe is vacuuming the floor upstairs,” she
said, pointing to the ceiling at the obvious sound of a vacuum cleaner.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered. All along, I thought she
had been behind this – the one they were talking about upstairs. I never would
have suspected she was a Conjurer. It also explained why she didn’t like to be
touched because any person, like Blake and I, would know instantly.

“Saving your ass.” She smirked. “Looks like you need it.”

“How in the hell did you end up here?” I shook my head. “It
doesn’t make any sense. Why would you let them use you as a chew toy?”

Paige gave a low chuckle. “I took one for the team, but it wasn’t
my favorite way to spend a few days. We need to get out of here. Any ideas?”

“Why are you helping me?”

“What is this, Lily? Twenty questions? We don’t have time to hash
all of this out now, and I’ll fill you in once we get outta here. There is a
boarded-up window over there. Keep a listen for the vacuum cleaner and let me
know if anyone is coming. I’ll try to pry it open somehow.”

“How should I give you a
warning?”

“Why don’t you just say,
‘Hey, Paige, they’re coming’ and I bet I’ll figure it out.”

“You’re such a bitch.”

She beamed at me. “Thank
you.”

Paige tiptoed over to the
boarded-up window, inspecting it for a lose nail or some way to get it open.
There was an empty workbench to the right I hadn’t noticed previously, and
Paige inspected a moldy cardboard box before pulling out a large, rusted
screwdriver with a smile. She began slowly prying the board loose until it hung
by one nail. Reaching forward, she pushed open the window that squealed from
rust and corrosion from disuse. The vacuum cleaner shut off upstairs, and Paige
froze, looking towards the stairs.

“Hey, Paige, they’re
coming,” I whispered.

“No shit, Sherlock.” She
propped the wood to block the window like it hadn’t been touched. Footsteps
began walking across the floor and we both watched them like we would be able
to see the floor move on the way to the basement door. She looked back at me
before hurrying back to her bloody concrete bed. “Play stupid, and if they start
biting me again, just let them. I’ll get you out of here. Now quick, pretend
you’re still tied up.”

I scooted back to the
pole and linked my hands behind the post.

She curled back into a
little ball as the basement door swung open and Con descended down the steps.
“I see you’re awake.” He glanced at Paige. “Has my dinner stirred at all?”

I was afraid if I spoke,
my voice would give her away, so I just shook my head.

He studied me for a
minute with a creepy grin. “I’ve booked us a flight and we will be leaving in
about two hours. I can’t wait to get you home and in my bed.”

I shivered and closed my
eyes. Paige better hurry up and figure out how to get us out of this mess,
because in a few hours, I would be on a plane leaving the country and that was
something I really didn’t want to happen. I was putting hope in the redheaded
woman I thought all along had hated me, which gave me doubts on her
reinforcement.

Footsteps began walking
towards the basement with the cadence of high heels and Con glanced towards the
door. “Shit. Well, I guess we get to have a little meet-and-greet earlier than
I originally thought.”

The woman began to make
her way down the stairs in black dress pants, black leather heels, and a blue
button-down blouse. She put her small, pale hand on the banister, hesitating
before taking the last few steps. My breath caught in my throat. I caught the
blonde hair, lithe body, and someone I never expected …
Stacy
.
 

She walked down the last
step and smirked. “Hello, Lily. It’s nice to see you again.”

I glared at her, and
betrayal stabbing me in the back, lodging that knife in deep. She was Sam’s
friend, and I wondered if she knew he had been shot at when I was taken. “What
in the fuck are you doing here?”

“Doing my job, of course.
The plan of getting you into our hands took longer than I expected. I wanted to
take you while you were at Revive, but those assholes were always hanging
around you all the time.”

“What about Sam?”

“Sam? He’s collateral
damage.” She squatted down to eye level. “A human is nothing more than a pebble
under our shoes. Why should we care?”

“Sam is my best friend,
and I care. How can you say that?”

“You’ll soon learn that
we don’t have friends in our world. Now, tell me if Blake has been in contact
with you.”

I shook my head with a
frown. “What are you talking about?”

“Please. I know he can
communicate through dreams, and I was hoping our little drug of choice was
keeping him away. I’d guess that he hasn’t been in contact because you would
have already given your location away by now.”

“I don’t even know where
we are. How could I tell him something I don’t know?”

Stacy cackled like a
demented witch. “Oh, Lily, you have so much to learn! I’m pretty sure that if
you had drunk Ashton’s blood, or had dreamt about Blake, then we would have
been discovered long ago.”

“What do you want from
me?”

“Well, I’d like you dead,
but we can’t have that. Right now you are much too valuable to be disposed of.
You’re our way of getting what we want – using you for our own little agenda.”

“You want to start a war.
Is that it?”

“Oh, part of it. The
other part is to teach you to use your powers to help us destroy those against
us. I think Con will help me with that part. He was such a tortured soul when I
met him, and has picked up quickly on emotional and physical torment. Sure, it
may take years to get you to help us, but we have time.”

So this is the vampire
she met and wanted to supposedly help. I looked over at Con, who licked his lips
suggestively. I scowled at him. “Fuck you.”

He just smiled. “I hope
you will be doing that soon. Just a plane ride away, baby.”

I shuddered and snuck a
glance at Paige, still curled on the floor, but I saw her stiffen at the
announcement that they planned on raping me and breaking my will down to
nothing. I would rather die than go through what they had planned for me, and
Stacy was going to allow it. God, I was such a horrible judge of character. I
thought this whole time that Paige was out to get me, but she was actually here
to save me.

“You might as well kill
me now because I won’t let you do this.”

Stacy started at my
announcement like she hadn’t seen it coming. “You’re stronger than I gave you
credit for, but we won’t let you die… for now.”

“Blake and Ashton will
find me, and when they do, you won’t live to threaten me again.”

Her head cocked to the
side. “You look just like your mother. She said we wouldn’t be able to kill her
either, but look how that turned out.”

I glared at the woman who
I would have never thought would be capable of murder and thought about how
nice she had been to me. Stacy was older than I originally thought, and I
glanced at the vampire standing in the room, knowing instantly how she would
have seemed so young. Blake was able to stay around the same age for a very
long time after drinking vampire blood just one time.

When I just stared at
her, she nodded at Con and began back up the stairs, and banged the basement
door shut. Stacy was downright evil, and there was no remorse in her eyes when
it came to what they were going to do. And she certainly didn’t care about Sam.

Con grabbed my ankles
again and started crawling up, sniffing my neck before yanking my hair to the
side. I was frozen in pure fear, knowing he had basically gotten permission to
use whatever means necessary to break me down enough so I would do what they
wanted. The air around him was pulsing with death and a promise he would stop
at nothing to get what he wanted. He growled like an animal. “I’m going to
enjoy this teaser of what’s to come.”

From my view over his
shoulder, I saw Paige slowly sit up without making a sound and made frantic
hand motions at me. I just stared at her with wide eyes because I couldn’t
figure out what she was doing with her fingers wiggling over her palm. She
mouthed, “Shock him.”

I didn’t waste anytime
letting the power hum through my blood and pulsate against my bones with
frenzied urgency. Something in Paige’s eyes told me that I had to do something
to stop him from biting me. I did wonder why she let him bite her while she was
trapped in this basement along with me. Sharp teeth scraped against my skin,
and I almost threw up in my mouth at the thought of this evil man doing
something so intimate.

Con leaned back and
licked my cheek before forcefully pushing his mouth against mine. That was all
it took to push me over the edge, and my hands whipped from behind the pole,
grabbing his face. He pulled back in surprise before I let all I had in me buzz
through my hands and into his face. Purple sparks ran along his skin, making
crackling sounds and he began to convulse as I held him in place.

A hand landed on my arm.
“Lily, stop now.” I couldn’t pull away watching this revolting bloodsucker’s
eyes roll back into his head and blood poured out of his nose. A hand cracked
against my cheek and I dropped my hands in surprise. Paige gave me a scornful
look. “You can’t kill him.”

“Why not?” I said,
pushing Con’s dead weight onto the concrete.

“Because he’s linked with
Stacy. I’m not sure if they can feel each other’s pain, but she would surely
know if he was dead.”

“Are you sure I didn’t
kill him, Paige? Wait… linked with Stacy?” Even as I questioned the link
between them, I knew that she was drinking his blood to stay forever young.
Were
they matched?
“Why would she let him take me to do whatever he wants?”

“No, you would know if
you killed him, trust me. As to why she would let him use you, is because she
only uses him as a bodyguard and to keep her young as well as alive.” She
glanced up towards the stairs. “We need to get out of here now.”

“So you work together
with somebody? Is it Blake or Ashton?”

“You have high
expectations, you know that?” She shook her head. “It’s neither of them, but
once we get you out of here, we can call them.”

I glanced down at Con,
who was still passed out on the floor with blood dripping from his nose, so I
kicked him. “He should’ve died.”

“Yeah, I think so too,
but we don’t have time to dillydally.” Paige began peeling the rotting wood
away from the window and looked around for something to stand on to get the
hell out of dodge. A rickety wooden stool was propped up against the wall to
the east side of the room, and she quickly placed it underneath the window. “Up
you go.”

I placed my dirty bare
foot on the stool, with Paige pressing my ass to lever me up to height, and I
steadied the wobbly thing by bracing my hands on the concrete walls. Little
paint chips fell to the ground, and I glanced back at Con to make sure he was
still having a forced siesta before trying to pull myself up and out the
window.