Burn Like Fire (7 page)

Chapter 13

Darius’s cold skin sent a shiver down Anna’s spine and made a trail of goose bumps rise on her arms. Her breath caught in the back of her throat at his touch; even though she’d been around plenty of vampires, she had never felt someone who was
so cold
.

“What exactly is a vampire training facility?” Austin questioned from next to her.Anna breathed a slight sigh of relief. Leave it to Austin to ask exactly what she had been wondering but was unable to ask herself.

Darius pulled his hands away from Anna and turned to Austin. “A vampire training facility is exactly what it sounds like—it is a facility in which we train vampires.” He glanced at each of them and smiled. “If you’re ready to follow me, I’d be happy to give you the grand tour.”

Anna rose to her feet. Even though she wanted to object to following him, to ask what this all had to do with her mother’s death, there was a tone in Darius’s voice that told her that this wasn’t up for discussion. They had to take the grand tour of the facility, whether they liked it or not.

Darius led the four of them through the doorway that he’d entered in. As he started down the hallway, he motioned to a room that had a television and four couches. It didn’t look like it belonged in a vampire training facility, Anna thought. It looked
normal
.

Darius glanced over his shoulder at them. “This is our vampire lounge. It’s where some of the vampires who live at our facility hang out during the day. It’s similar to the living rooms that humans have in their homes. Here at Westbrooke, we do our best to make certain aspects of our facility closely resemble what humans are used to. We find that it makes them feel very much at home.” He chuckled before continuing down the hall.

Anna glanced over in Austin’s direction. She wondered if he was as nervous as she was about being at the facility.

Austin wouldn’t meet her eyes. Anna wondered if this was his way of dealing with his own nerves or if, as she suspected, he had something else on his mind. Ever since they’d stepped foot in the building, something had changed within Austin. He was quieter than he usually was, but she couldn’t put her finger on why.

Deciding not to think about it right now, Anna focused her attention on Darius, who had opened a door that led to a stairwell. As they began to descend the stairs, Anna was positive she heard the sound of her own heartbeat get louder. When they’d first entered the building, she was sure she could hear her the sound of her heart pounding against her chest, but it was starting to beat even louder now.

Anna was more nervous than she even realized.

Once they reached the bottom of the staircase, Darius turned to look at them again. “This is our storage facility.” He motioned to the row of refrigerators that lined the wall. “As you can see, we keep numerous fridges down here. This is where we store blood for our vampires. Due to the nature of our facility, our vampires are required to feed often. It helps to keep their energy levels in check. We make sure to keep five hundred gallons of blood stocked in our fridges at all times so that our vampires don’t run out of food.”

Anna only gaped at him. She knew that vampires had big appetites, but how could this facility possibly keep this much blood in stock for their vampires at all times? Anna didn’t even want to think about the number of humans who had probably died to feed the vampires at Westbrooke . . .

“Okay, now that you’ve seen our storage facility, I suppose we can go up to the top floor. Follow me,” Darius said. He walked over to the wall and pressed a button. There was a loud beeping sound and the wall was pulled apart, as an elevator door opened.

“I didn’t even know that was there,” Dan mumbled.

Anna hadn’t known, either.

Darius stepped inside the elevator and motioned for the four of them to follow. “Don’t worry. I won’t bite,” he said, tilting his head back in laughter.

As she followed Dan and Lexi into the elevator, Anna felt a sick knot twist in her stomach at Darius’s joke. Did he really think it was funny to joke about not biting them?

Darius smiled at her from across the elevator as he pressed the button to determine what floor it would stop at, and the elevator began to creep upwards.

Anna realized that maybe Darius hadn’t intended for his joke to be funny. Maybe biting them was exactly what he was planning to do. Maybe the whole reason Darius—or whoever it was who had convinced her to come here—was planning to do the same thing to her as he had done to her mother.

Anna had come here to find out what had happened to her mom, but there was a chance that she wouldn’t even make it out alive.

Once the elevator door slid open, Darius stepped out and motioned for the others to follow him. Anna noticed that there was a room that was lined with windows. It was the type of room she had once heard referred to as a fishbowl room because anyone standing outside the room could observe the people who were inside the room, similar to fish inside a bowl.

There were a few men and women sitting at each of the chairs. They were staring ahead of them, a dazed look in their eyes, as though they were in a trance. Behind them, a red curtain hung. Anna could see the legs of two chairs behind it.

“This is our blood donation station,” Darius explained, following Anna’s gaze to the room. “This is where we draw blood from our donors. Many of them come here several times a week to help ensure that our blood supply is fully stocked. Our donors are often people who have ties to vampires, whether it be relatives or significant others. Occasionally, our donors are people who are simply fascinated by vampire culture and know we exist.”

He pointed to the curtains hanging in the background. “Behind that curtain is our live feeding
station. Some of our donors prefer to allow us to drink directly from their veins. They schedule appointments with our vampires for feeding times. These donors are always willing participants. They find it mutually beneficial to allow us to drink from them.” Darius eyed Austin and then glanced at Anna with an amused look. “I’m sure you’re aware of how pleasurable it can be for our feeding donors.”

Anna gulped. How did Darius know that Austin drank from her regularly? Was their relationship really that transparent? Or was Darius able to read minds? Maybe Austin had thought about wanting to drink from Anna. Normally, it would have crossed Anna’s own mind, but she was so surprised by this whole thing. The last thing she had expected to find at this address was a vampire training facility. She was so surprised to learn that such a thing even existed, and she still wasn’t sure how it related to her mother’s murder.

Darius continued down the hall. Motioning to a room, in which there was a large box, which looked like a speaker but didn’t seem to be producing any sounds, he said, “This is our audio station. This box that you see right here is a heartbeat transmitter.” He turned to Dan and Austin. “I can tell that both of you are struggling with not feeding right now.”

Dan nodded, lowering his eyes to the ground. “Yeah, I’ve never heard Lexi’s heartbeat so loudly before. I think I hear Anna’s heartbeat, too, but I only care about Lexi’s.”

“And you?” Darius asked, turning to Austin.

Austin nodded. “Yeah, I can hear Anna’s heart beating, too.” He shifted uncomfortably in his shoes and lowered his eyes to the ground.

“The reason you can hear their heartbeats so loudly is because our heartbeat transmitter amplifies the sound,” Darius explained.

“Is there a reason you want human heartbeats to be amplified?” Dan questioned, running a hand through his sandy blonde hand nervously. Anna decided that it looked like he was squirming; he was having a hard time composing himself over the heightened sound of Lexi’s heartbeat.

Darius nodded. “Yes, there is a reason behind it. Our logic is that if we can train our vampires to listen to heartbeats more closely, they will be able to pick up on emotions more quickly. If they want to feed from a certain human and there is fear in that person’s heartbeat, they will be able to identify it easier. Here at Westbrooke, we believe that it is important to be in touch with humans’ emotions when we feed from them. We feel that if a human is scared or upset, the quality of their blood will be poorer than a human who is willingly volunteering to allow us to drink from them. Does that make sense?”

“Sort of,” Anna replied. “What’s your logic based on?”

Darius smiled at her, seemingly amused by her question. “Our logic is based on numerous tests that we have performed on human blood donation. We’ve found that vampires who have drank from willing, eager participants thrived much better and were able to go for longer periods of
time without feeding than those who drank from donors who were reluctant or afraid to be donors. I can assure you that this information is pretty spot-on. We’ve done quite a few observations.”

“How did you find unwilling participants for your observations?” Lexi blurted, staring at Darius with wide eyes.

“Are you sure you really want to know?” Darius laughed. “We made sure that we found the least willing participants we could. Basically? We kidnapped them off the street until we were finished with them. Don’t worry, though. One of the skills we teach our vampires here is self-restraint. We always try to ensure that no vampire kills a donor within our facility. Our vampires are not even allowed to drink from live donors until they have a good understanding of how much blood is too much. While it is up to them to practice this skill once they get out into the real world, we can only hope that practice will make perfect.”

“So, you teach them not to kill?” Lexi questioned. Anna could just see the ball rolling around in her friend’s head. Lexi was probably worried that this facility was encouraging vampires to take part in dangerous behavior. What separated Lexi from Anna was the fact that Anna knew that most vampires—with the exception of the ones who were attending Huntington—were dangerous. It was in their nature.

“We try,” Darius replied. Dismissing them from asking any further questions at the moment, he turned and started to stroll down the hallway, when Austin tugged on his arm. Darius turned back around, a surprised look on his face, as though he hadn’t been expecting anyone from their group to touch him.

Austin asked, “What’s the purpose of your facility? I mean, I get it . . . you train vampires. But . . . why?”

Darius stared back at him, dumbfounded that he was asking such a question. “To train the strongest vampires we can. Let me tell you something. You’re how old, Austin? A year?”

“A little less,” Austin mumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“Being a vampire isn’t an easy task. There are so many obstacles that will get in your way. You
must learn self-discipline in order to carry out this lifestyle. You might make many decisions over the course of your lifetime that you’ll regret. One of our vampires in training is here because he killed his fiancée when he was unable to control himself one night,” Darius explained, a sad look on his face. “Our mission is to send the most self-disciplined vampires out into the world. It’s also essential for them to be strong and powerful because, let’s face it, there’s a good chance that, at some point, you may find yourself face-to-face with a vampire who wants to kill you. You will need to be prepared for when that happens.”

Darius looked like he was about to turn back around to continue giving them the tour when Anna finally spoke up for the first time since they’d arrived.

“I understand the purpose of your vampire training facility, and I think it’s . . . a smart idea, to encourage vampires to have self-restraint. I respect you for that. What I don’t understand is what this has anything to do with my mother’s murder.” Anna stared back at him expectantly, hoping he would have an answer for her.

Darius looked her straight in the eye. “Annemarie Lancefield was an active participant here at Westbrooke.” When Anna stared back at him blankly, he explained, “Your mother was one of our most frequent donors.”

Chapter 14

“Why are we just sitting here?” Gabe questioned impatiently. “I thought we were going to meet up with your dad.”

Rhonda sighed. She had parked alongside the building that she’d seen Lexi and her friends go into. Luckily, Gabe hadn’t actually seen them. Rhonda wasn’t sure what she would have done if he spotted them, but then again, it was worth the risk. She couldn’t let Anna out of her sight.

If Rhonda had it her way, which she would, Anna was never going to leave Ohio.

Just thinking about killing Anna still made Rhonda feel happy inside. It made this whole God-awful trip worth it.

Turning to Gabe, Rhonda said, “My father said he’s supposed to meet us here.”

Gabe glanced around the mostly empty street. “This seems like a really random place to meet someone. Do you see him anywhere?”

Rhonda shook her head. “No, I don’t see him.” Not that she was really looking for him. She knew that her father wouldn’t show up here . . . or in Boston, for that matter.

The first time she had ever talked about her family to Gabe, she had mentioned that her father was an alcoholic. And that was the truth; her father did have a drinking problem. But Rhonda led Gabe to believe that her father was still alive. That had seemed easier than admitting the truth—which was that her father had died as a result of his drinking problem.

Her mind flashed back to the night she had found her father, lying on the cold tiles of the kitchen floor, with a bottle in hand. Rhonda had gotten her glass of orange juice and headed back to her room, the same way she did every time her father passed out from a drinking binge when she stayed there on the weekends, after her parents had separated.

Except when she woke up the next morning, her father was still in the same spot . . . and there was a pale look to his skin. Rhonda had knelt down and felt for a pulse, only to find that there wasn’t one. She was about to call someone—911 or one of the neighbors—when there was a knock on the front door. Her mom was there to pick her up and when she saw the tears streaming down Rhonda’s cheeks, she’d yelled, “Where is he? Did he hurt you? I swear I’ll kill him if he did.”

Rhonda had sobbed even harder at her mom’s reaction. “He didn’t hurt me. He’s dead.”

Now, Rhonda glanced over at Gabe. “Let’s just wait here for a few more minutes, okay? My dad always makes it a habit to be late.”

Gabe shrugged. “Sure, whatever. How much longer do you want to wait before we get out of here, though?”

Rhonda rolled her eyes. She’d thought that her surprise for Gabe would have made him treat her a little more nicely than he had been this morning. After the girls had left the motel room the night before—with blank minds about what had happened because Rhonda had erased their memories of the blood drinking—Gabe hadn’t said a word to her.

This morning, she’d told him that they would be meeting her father when she’d heard Lexi and her friends get into their car. She’d managed to get Gabe to leave the room in time to follow them to this location.

“Well?” Gabe pressed. “Should we give your dad fifteen minutes and then leave? Or what?”

“I don’t know.” Rhonda glanced over at him, running her hands over the lacy trim of her camisole and meeting his gaze.
Stop asking so many questions. Just go with the flow.

When Gabe stared back at her, he had a dazed look in his eyes. “We can stay here as long as you want, Rhonda.”

Rhonda smiled. “Thank you.”
Close your eyes
, she mentally urged him.
Keep them closed until we leave.

She watched as Gabe’s eyes fluttered shut. “I wish I could sleep,” he mumbled, leaning his head against the car seat’s headrest.

“Me, too,” Rhonda admitted quietly. For once, she wasn’t lying about something to him. She really
did
miss sleeping. She also missed sleeping at home, in her own bed, until mid-afternoon. The days went by so much quicker when she was able to sleep at night. Her eternal life was going to seem so much longer than a human life for the simple fact that she was awake both day and night.

Rhonda stared at the building ahead of them, wondering what it could be. Was it a school or a hospital? It resembled both of those. It also sort of looked like it could be a jail. It made Rhonda wonder what it had anything to do with Anna’s mom’s murder. Maybe her mom had gone here, whatever it was.

It sometimes made her jealous to realize how close Lexi and her circle of friends
were with one another. Rhonda had never had a best friend, and it seemed like that was what Lexi and Anna were to each other. Even more than friendship, though, Rhonda felt jealous of the romance that Lexi and Dan—and Austin and Anna—had with one another.

She wondered what it was like to be in a love with a vampire who you didn’t need to use mind-control on. What did it feel like to really be in love?