Vampire Elite (26 page)

Tor didn’t realize how hard he was squeezing his glass until it shattered in his hand, slicing his palm with shards of crystal. Crian handed him a towel from the wet bar.
 

“Do you think they’ll kill them?” Tor asked Crian, his voice hoarse. Damn, this whole situation was surpassing the limits of his tolerance, his ability to control his emotions. But right now he didn’t care. He stared down at his bleeding hand, the bright red streaks on the white towel.
 

“Yes. They need to remove Simone’s power as a Keeper. As for Odji, they have no use for him.”
 

Something in Crian’s voice made Tor turn and meet his eyes. Crian’s face wore an expression Tor had never seen on him before, an almost tender look of sympathy and grief. Suddenly Tor understood.

“You lost a child once, didn’t you?”

Crian didn’t answer, just lowered his gaze.
 

“You never told me. I’m really sorry, my friend.”
 

“That is why I became a bloodstock hunter.” Crian’s voice was almost unrecognizable, heavy with sadness. Then abruptly his demeanor changed. “Well, nothing can bring them back. We need to find a way to save yours. And as far as I know, there’s only one immortal who can create holes in space capable of swallowing anything, including a helicopter.”
 

“Fucking
Oberon
. Again.” Tor paused to let a wave of anger and hate sweep through him, break, and recede before continuing. “I’ve had it with that rotten bastard. I want him. And I want him now. Find him.”
 

“Are you kidding, Tor? Oberon could be anywhere on the planet, or for that matter in a different dimension. Don’t forget, he’s the Keeper of the Hidden; the universe is his hiding place.”
 

“He can’t hide forever. Sooner or later we’ll get him. But meanwhile, we’ll send him an ultimatum.” Tor tossed back the rest of his drink and dialed Anock.
“
I want you to go right now and get the word out on all the major vampire websites that if Simone and Odji are killed, ten Amiti will be executed: five for each of my children.”

Chapter 36

The Project research station, Lake Baikal, Russia
 

“Where are we?” Simone asked Odji without taking her eyes off the view out the helicopter window. “Is it possible that we’re dead and this is what the afterlife looks like?”
 

The helicopter had come to a halt—if that’s what had actually happened; the crazy vortex thing had left her totally disoriented—in a landscape surrounded by huge pine trees draped in massive mounds of brilliantly crystallized snow. A vast body of water, frozen solid, spread before them, reflecting a spectacular view of the rays of the rising sun.
 

It was a glaring contrast to the tropics of Venezuela.

“We have company,” Odji muttered, pointing to a small group of people approaching the helicopter. They all wore heavy sheepskin coats, hats, boots and gloves. “Humans,” he sighed.
 

There was nothing to fear; humans presented no danger to Sekhmi. Odji would just glamour them into thinking that the helicopter had crash-landed here, maybe get their help once he figured out what to do next.
 

As soon as Odji opened the helicopter door, the Amiti girl barreled past Simone and through the door, leaping to the ground at a dead run toward the approaching group, wearing only the blanket she’d been wrapped in. “Help! Please, help me!” she yelled.

Simone heard Odji curse, and then he was at the girl’s side. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the snow.
 

The girl kicked viciously at him. “Help, help, help me!”
 

Suddenly Odji reeled as though he’d been clocked in the head. The girl fell from his arms as he tumbled to the ground.
 

What the hell was that? Had one of the
humans
done that to Odji?
 

As Simone stood there, stupefied, in the doorway of the helicopter, she felt one of the humans’ stares pulling at her mind. Raising her eyes to meet his, it was as if he’d blasted her in the brain, her mind overwhelmed with blackness. She felt herself collapsing in the snow ...
 

She came back to consciousness expecting to be in some kind of cell, but the bed in which she was lying was comfortable, and she opened her eyes to a room that looked like it belonged in an elegant hotel: pristine white walls and ceiling, soft lighting, sofa, and two chairs at a small table. A built-in bookshelf and flatscreen TV monitor took up most of the wall opposite her, with a door to their right; another wall was covered entirely by floor-length draperies; and the fourth wall held another door.
 

Simone jumped out of the bed and checked both doors. One led to a bathroom with a shower unit; the other was locked. Yanking aside the drapes, she found only a blank wall. She returned to the locked door and tried it again—still locked, of course—and then pounded on it, hard. It was clearly reinforced.
 

She was knocking the heel of her hand across the door, trying to find a weaker spot, when the monitor on the wall blinked on and a human male appeared on the screen. Maybe in his early forties, he wore a dark brown knitted turtleneck and was holding a steaming mug of tea or coffee.
 

“Who the hell are you?” Simone snarled at the monitor. “And where the hell am I? Why is the door locked? I demand that you release me immediately!”
 

“Well, well, aren’t we just the little Miss Princess? Let’s take this one question at a time, shall we? My name is Vlad Orlov; I’m a doctor here. You are at the Project’s research station. And the door is locked because you are now one of the participants in our research.”
 

“I’m
what
? What are you talking about? What research? Wait—you know what? We’re done here. Let me talk to the person in charge.”
 

“Actually, that would be me. I’m the senior researcher here. Go ahead; what would you like to say?”
 

Shit, what
did
she want to say? She stared at the guy—what was his name again?—in total frustration. “I need to call my family.”
 

“Sorry, Simone, no phone calls.”
 

“How do you know my name?”
 

“We know a lot of things about you. For example, we know that you are Sekhmi, one of the so-called Vampire Elite.”
 

Simone’s stomach knotted.
No!
It couldn’t be true. Humans don’t know about vampires—or any immortals, for that matter. Sure, maybe they’d heard stories passed down through generations about vampires and werewolves, but nobody really believed them, did they? And this guy—not only did he
know
she was a vampire; he even knew about distinctions among vampires. What next? Great Sekhmet, how right immortals were about keeping their existence a secret from humans! Not only would they try to annihilate them; obviously they would also keep them locked in scientific labs as guinea pigs.
 

“So, what are you going to do with me?
Study me?
” She put all her venom into the question, but she just felt like an alley cat arching her back and hissing at a snarling dog.
 

She had to do something to save herself. She wasn’t in a position of power; all she could do was negotiate. “Please, let me go ... I can pay you, any amount you demand. Can’t you see I’m almost human? Look, I look like you, I speak the same language, and—and I’m actually a citizen of France! If you keep me here, I’ll complain to the French Embassy that you have violated my human rights!” What the fuck was she saying?
Human rights?
 

* * *

The look on her face told Oberon that she realized how ineffective she was sounding. He suddenly felt sorry for her. “Look, we won’t keep you long at all—
if
you cooperate with us. What happens will depend on your level of compliance.”
 

“What do you want me to do?”
 

“Just try to behave yourself, let the staff perform the tests they need, and then we’ll let you go with your promise never to tell anyone where you were and what you saw,” Oberon lied smoothly. Of course he had no intention of letting Simone leave. But giving her that hope would make her work harder to get herself set free—and while she was doing that work, Oberon would be working hard to bring her to his side.
 

Oberon’s initial intention had been to kill Simone so her Keeper’s power could revert back to the Amiti. But everything had changed when he’d seen her lying unconscious in the snow in her white gown, her thick mane of raven-black hair splashed around her head. He’d flashed back to Theores’s dark hair against pale linen pillows as she waited eagerly for him to indulge her with feeding and sexual play.
 

She’d loved him and he had betrayed her, exchanging her and her brother, Leon, for Tor’s bloodstock—one of whom had been his best friend.
 

He’d planned to find Theores right away and ask for forgiveness, ask her to come back to him, but she broke their blood-bond by bonding with Istara, cutting off his access to her, and then joined the Royal pride. As Theores became infamous for her hatred of all Amiti, Oberon realized there was no way back; he had to accept that he’d lost her forever. For centuries he had tried to unburden himself—of his painful memories, and of the guilt he felt over abandoning her—but to no avail.
 

Now, he thought he might have been given a second chance. Maybe this girl was the key to his redemption; maybe if he spared her life, his soul would finally stop eating him alive. Instead of killing Simone, he’d try to bring her over to their side. She was half Amiti. He’d show her all the horrors vampires had visited upon the Amiti, and if she had a heart, she’d agree to assist the Keepers.

“What’s my guarantee that you’ll let me go?” Simone walked to the middle of the room, took a seat at the table and crossed her arms across her chest.
 

“Well, you don’t have any other options.”
 

He watched her think about that. She was trying to be so tough, trying to bargain with him even though she didn’t have any chips to play with—and she obviously had no idea how very unsuccessful she was at hiding her feelings. Everything she thought was broadcast across her face.
 

She sighed. “OK, I’ll do what you ask. But I wasn’t alone; there was a male with me. What happened to him?”
 

“Odji? He’s fine. Actually, he’s having quite a good time with the Amiti girl he rescued.”
 

“What! You’re not keeping them together!”
 

“Why wouldn’t I? They seem quite fond of each other.” Oberon liked toying with her; she seemed quite intelligent.
 

“You simply can’t! If you know anything about our two species, you must know that we can’t live together.”
 

“And that would be because ... ?”
 

“You know how we feed. You should know that if you keep them together you force him to feed on her. She belongs to the species we use for our blood source.”
 

“So what’s the big deal? He feeds on her; it won’t kill her as long as he doesn’t drain all her blood at one time.”
 

“Because she’ll kill
him
!”
 

“What? Why?” He made a
surely-you-jest
face. Oh, this was fun.

“Because that’s what they do! They kill us!”
 

“Wow, that’s pretty dramatic. How do you guys manage to coexist on this planet?”
 

“It’s complicated. I can’t get into it—but please, separate them before it’s too late.”
 

“I need to go now, Simone. This monitor is also a TV; the remote control is on the table. The remote also opens a panel on the wall. You’ll find food there.”
 

He severed her connection to him, but kept watching her in one-way mode as she opened the panel, picked up the tray of food waiting for her in the warming unit, and hurled it against the wall, then flopped onto the bed.
 

He was still watching a half hour later as she was returned to the bed, paralyzed by one of the research technicians she’d attacked when they came in to perform tests. Only her eyes moved as the techs took blood and tissue samples and placed them in small, labeled glass vials.
 

Yep, life was unpredictable. You never knew how things would turn out.

Chapter 37

Odji opened his eyes, which throbbed with pain despite the soft lighting. He was sprawled on the floor, his body stiff and bruised. With some effort he raised his upper body, supporting himself on his elbows. He was in a clean, comfortable, elegantly nondescript room. In fact, if he hadn’t had a background in security, he might not have even noticed the signs that it had been built to detain prisoners—powerful ones. There were no windows, and the door and ventilation system were reinforced with a metal alloy of some kind—

His assessment of the situation screeched to a halt when he saw
her
, the golden Amiti girl. She was sitting on the queen-sized bed, squeezed tightly against the wall, hands clutching a blanket that she’d pulled all the way up to her ears.
 

Dizzy and nauseous, Odji staggered to his feet.
Damn!
Whatever force had been used against him had to have been supernatural to have given him this much of a hangover. He couldn’t even remember what it had been. Clumsily he stumbled toward the door.
 

“I already checked,” said a soft voice. “It’s locked.”
 

Odji pivoted, tilting his head to consider her. Huge, dark-brown eyes were locked on him.
 

A wave of relief washed over him: no matter where they were, they were both alive and she was with him, and that made him almost giddy with excitement. It was something Odji had barely even hoped for when he’d rescued her. “Any idea where we are?”