Days of Redemption (The Firsts Book 6) (12 page)

Kalia entered softly, like a cat, easing into hi
m, weaving warmth and firing his mind from lethargy to awareness. 

 
  Bryn felt her mind rubbing gently against his to get his attention, and she did.  Somehow, he was aware that he’d been sleeping, but she pulled him forward and, like a spark, electricity moved through him, then his body jolted. 

Both Kalia and Bryn became alert at the same time.  He felt her fingers
on his forehead, but pulled away to sit up.  Confusion burned off, and he remembered where he was.  Trapped, along with Lauren and this feline woman beside him.

He wasn’t pleased about how th
is was going.  When he stood, it was shakily, and not because he had a good buzz on, which was disappointing.  Mostly, he was worried about Lauren. His memory was fuzzy and he didn’t know where she was.

“Bryn.”

Lauren, her voice strong, was somewhere in this big room.

His eyes sought her immediately.  She stood against her cage at the back of the room, and gave him a little wave.   He smiled to her
as he remembered, and then shifted his gaze to the dark-skinned woman who was just now gaining her feet.

“How long have I been out?” he asked
.

“All night, as far as I know.
  Oh, vampire, they really screwed you up.  There’s magic in you, and it isn’t yours.  Something that draws from you.  I believe that the more you fight it, the more it takes.  This serum they used, it may be too powerful for you to overcome.”

“
I’m going to try to break these chains again.  If I can do it, we can stop this man.”

“All right,” Kalia said, almost holding her breath.  She prayed he could, but had her doubts.  Lamont was very motivated in his mission, and he wouldn’t have tried to contain a vampire unless he thought he could succeed.

Bryn stood still for several moments longer before he began to pull.  The chains held tight.  He pulled again, the strain apparent on his face showed he was giving it everything he had.  It wasn’t enough.  Standing motionless in the middle of the cage, Bryn closed his eyes.

Kalia watched him with interest, wishing there was something else
, that she could do to help.  But it was all on the vampire now.

Gathering everything he had, everything he was, Bryn yanked, hard, so hard he heard his wrist snap.  He’d broken a bone, but not any link in the chain that bound him.  He knew now that whatever Lamont had done to him was
grievous indeed.  He’d neutered a vampire.

They’d taken away his bite.

Lauren called from her cage when she saw Kalia take a deep breath and look down. “It didn’t work, did it?  Bryn, are you all right?”

No one spoke for long moments, then Bryn said softly, “Nay, lass.  It did not.  And apparently I am
not
all right.”

Kalia put her hand th
rough the bars to touch Bryn’s broken wrist.  “It’s okay, vampire.  We will find a way.”

“This bodes badly for
supernaturals.  The only one more powerful than me is a first blood.  They’ll be coming.  I hope to hell that whatever they did to me can’t stop a first blood.”

“Good. 
Reinforcements.  I guess we wait then.  I’m going to catch some sleep.  Sorry I couldn’t help.”

“I appreciate the effort.  At least I’m awake now. 
Was having some shit dreams, so thank ya for that.”

Kalia smiled.  Although taciturn was her default setting, something about this big vampire made her feel tingly
inside.  She turned away and entered her cage.  Dropping onto her cot, she rolled towards the wall. 
What the fuck?
  She did
not
do tingly!

As night fell in Brazil, the three first blood vampires rose for the full-on buffet provided by
Dez’s staff, a vampire’s first meal upon rising.  Because their metabolisms burned through calories, it took a lot of food to keep them fueled.  Dez’s staff was ready for the appetites of three first bloods.

She joined them shortly after they’d filled their plates and sat to eat, already dressed for battle in a tight leather catsuit.

“Vampires,” she said, in greeting.  After filling her own plate, she pushed in beside Koen.

“My IT guy found the facility.  It’s cleverly hidden beneath a copse of trees.  No satellite surveillance obviously.  We have a team on site right now, and they report significant security.  Big money stuff, high-end cameras, big beefy well-armed soldiers, probably traps on the grounds and inside the building.  But you’re first bloods, so it should be a cakewalk. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll go.”

“What’s the size of the team on-site?”  David asked.

“Ten, in recon.  I’ll bring another twelve with us.  I think we can pull this rescue off, but I really have no idea what waits inside.  Until this came up, we did not know that crazy-ass vampire research group had a place here.  They’ve been good at covering it up.”

“Yes, they have been.  But
this needs to be done.  I need to see them finished.”  David spoke passionately.  Everyone there knew why, since he had suffered and wished for death for nearly three decades under their studies.

“I agree.  Once I’m close, I may be able to get some mental reads which often tells me what I need to know.  It should help.”

Koen nodded.  “All right then.  Eat quickly and let’s do this.”

Half an hour later, Dez led her party to several
waiting vehicles, their trunks loaded with weapons.  David, Koen, and Xavier got into their rented vehicle, and headed out to begin a fight they expected to have no trouble winning.

“What the hell is this?”  Lamont yelled and shoved the tray away from him violently enough to upend it.  “If this is the kind of food you provide, no wonder I can’t keep a good staff.”

“Sir, we did not know you were coming this week or we would have provided something else for you.  This food is perfectly satisfactory for our staff.”

“Tripe, is what this is.  Send out for something palatable for me.”  He slammed his fist on a tabletop.  

“And get me some decent wine.”

Reuben turned and exited the chamber quickly, happy to leave the impossibly difficult man behind.  There were some particularly vicious hybrids on level two and he thought how satisfactory it would be to bring a few of them up from that chamber.  Not to feed the asshole, but to feed the hybrids.

Once he got back to his commandeered office, Mari
e looked up at Reuben.

“Problems?” she asked, when she saw his face.

“Fuck, yeah.  That man needs to be in a cage.  He doesn’t like anything you sent up to him for his dinner.”

“Color me surprised.  All right, I’ll do what I can.  We are in the middle of a forest, you know.”

“And he wants the finest red wine.  Where in the hell am I going to…”

“I’ll take care of it.  Just get to the lower levels.  Check on the vampire they brought in yesterday.  He’s been drugged with something that nasty man brought from France.  You know nothing works on vampires.  Something is really wrong there.”

“I know.  Okay, but just try to keep him off my ass.”

ELEVEN

Half of Dez’s team was blood-bonded humans, loyal to her for decades, and half were vampire. 

She wondered how they could have taken and imprisoned Bryn.   Yeah, there was a chance this Lamont asshole had another first blood on staff,
like he did once with Tamesine, a psychotic first blood, who had helped trap and torture David.  But Dez didn’t believe so.  Tamesine had been neutralized, supposedly now on her way to recovering from centuries of mental problems. 

Leaving their vehicles three miles from the facility, the vampires went ahead to scope the assault, since they could move much faster than the humans.

Down behind a heavy row of brush, actually pushed inside of them, Dez crouched beside the three first bloods and six of her vampire soldiers. 

“We’ll wait for
my humans to arrive, but this gives us an eyes-on chance to see what we’re up against.”

Xavier and Koen were already scanning the building carefully.  Their eyes met and they nodded to each other.

Koen leaned in to speak with everyone without having to project loudly.

“Two stories, above ground, not that impressive and not that much square-footage.  There are
subterranean floors, probably several.  My guess is the first level is totally security.”

“Aye, I agree,” Xavier
said.  “It’s what I’d do with a secret lab.  Especially when one had already been compromised, and particularly when I knew that my enemy was much more powerful than I was.”

“
Makes sense,” Dez said, distracted.  She’d been quiet since they arrived.  They were looking for the best way to access the inside with least resistance and she was trying to scan for mental images.  

“I can’t read anyone at all.  The walls have to be impenetrable to stop me, and they have.  You know, I really am getting a bad vibe here.”

Xavier touched her shoulder, which she shrugged off.

“Nah, you have nothing to worry about, lovely Amazon.  How about you keep your team here as second strike, in case we have any problems.  Three first bloods,
each a thousand years old, can handle whatever these crazy humans are doing.  We’ll go in, get our people, and leave.  What do you think, brother?”

Koen nodded. 
“I’m with you.  I think we go.  David?” 

David
’s eyes were frozen on the facility.   Moments like this brought back fragments of those years when he’d suffered torture and sexual abuse.  Flashbacks sometimes drove him from his bed, breathing hard, his heart pounding. 

He though
t he was mostly past it, but now he knew, he needed to face them and win back his pride.  The hunger of a vampire.  Yeah, that’s what he needed now more than anything.

“Yes, we go,” he said simply, hoping he wouldn’t back out. 
A vampire with PTSD, how pitiful was that?

Dez knew when to keep her mouth shut.  These three men were amongst the most powerful on earth.  If they thought they had this, then she’d just be here if they needed her.  So she nodded, and held her rifle
up as they crawled out from behind the thick hedges.  She had a total of sixteen men placed 360 around the building.

The perimeter lights were dim, obviously for obscurity, but her exceptional vampire vision had no trouble seeing the three large vampires advance through the darkness to a wide door along the backside currently
unsecured by frequent patrols by the facility’s guards.  Any guard spotted would be dispensed quickly.

“I’ve got your back, guys, but hurry.  Once you get them, get back here and we’ll come back later to empty the place.  Be careful.”

She sent the thought to the three first bloods, aware that most first bloods could receive her telepathic messages.  They did not acknowledge, but she hadn’t expected them to do so.  While most first bloods could receive, she’d only found one that could send.

Xavier was the most aggressive of the three men, and reached the door first.  Using his ability to defy locks, he gently pulled the big handle, and the door opened easily.  He glanced at the other two men with a shake of his head.

“You would think they’d know how easy this was for us,” he said.

“Yeah, well, wait and see if they have a firing squad behind that door,” Koen remarked, and pushed his brother aside to enter first. The other two followed immediately.

They all carried machine guns.   Vampires were stronger and faster than humans, but a lucky human with a machine gun could take down a vampire before they had a chance to use their special skills to protect themselves. 

Rifles
raised, they moved carefully forward.  No firing squad, no nothing.  The room was rectangular, maybe thirty feet wide, fifty long.  It was all white, dimly lit, with smooth walls and no visible door on any of the other three walls.

“What the hell?”  Xavier said, roving along the perimeter carefully, the barrel of the rifle raised and leading the way.  “I can’t see a door.”

Suddenly the lights shot on, as bright as day, all three men squinted and dropped to their haunches, backs together in a tripod formation, rifles at the ready. 

Once their eyes adjusted, they looked around.  They were still alone, still in a solid white room with no   openings, and confused.  Looking completely around them, the door they’d entered through appeared to be gone too.  There didn’t seem to be any exit at all now.

“Uh, guys.  What just happened?”  David asked.

Three loud screeches drew their eyes upward.  Small windows slid open high on the walls
.  The three vampires had only a moment to stand and see rifle barrels come out of the openings, heard multiple loud whizzes, and they dropped onto the white tiled floor unconscious.

Reuben wandered down to sub-level four.  He wasn’t in a hurry because he didn’t want to see the vampire imprisoned.  He’d never seen a vampire in person before, but he knew
that they were big, powerful, and usually peaceful warriors.  They fought when they had to, but most of them lived calm lives in isolated compounds and were no threat to humans.  How awful that this creep had one of them trapped in the lab in a cage.

The SRS had only been able to hold one in all of its history,
one of the most powerful ones of them all, but that had been a unique circumstance.  

T
his was a new situation.  There were no vampires here to help Lamont’s people keep him.  Marie was right, something was happening.

Sub-level four had pneumatic doors that whooshed open
once security codes were entered and fingerprints read.  No one knew yet if this technology worked on vampires, but there was a chance it might.

Reuben saw the huge man in the cage almost right away. 
The vampire was alert, which surprised him, because he’d been told that they had him successfully sedated.   The thickest and heaviest chains were locked on his wrists, but Reuben didn’t trust them.  Working his way carefully some distance from the cage, he finally began to move closer.

The vampire watched him the entire way.  Reuben watched the vampire watching him.

Eventually, Bryn spoke.  “Here to bugger me? 
Ya better be really good, or we’re gonna have a problem.”

Swallowing hard, Reuben stopped a good eight feet from the front of Bryn’s cage.

“No, um, no, sir, I wouldn’t…I couldn’t…  What I mean is… Kalia called me.”

“Oh, stop babbling, Rube.”  Kalia walked up behind him and la
y across his narrow shoulders.  “Vampire, this is one of the good guys.  Technically, he runs this place.   Truthfully, he stays just to make sure they hurt us as little as possible.  He’s just a figurehead right now, though, since the white man showed up.   Isn’t that right, Rube?”

Bryn watched the slim man release a long breath.   Then his eyes moved back to Bryn.

“Yeah,” Reuben said.  “I’m sorry they have you.  They’ve never had a vampire before.” 

“They have actually. 
A good friend of mine.”

“Well, yes, that’s true, at the old lab in France.  That one burned down.”

Bryn pursed his lips and nodded.  “Aye, I’m aware of that.”

“But not since.
  Never here.  Do you need anything?”

Bryn looked at Kalia with derision.

She shrugged.  “He doesn’t mean anything by it.  He really is trying to be helpful.   Rube, the vampire is wondering if you can open his cage.”

“The vampire has a name.  Please call me Bryn.  I think we should be on first name basis since you guys own my ass.”

Bryn glanced to his left.  “If ya can get my cage open, ya need to open hers, too.”

Reuben followed his gaze to a cage at the
back of the room.

A very attractive woman with long black h
air stood with one arm out through the bars.  She lifted it once in a brief wave.  “Lauren.  The white man’s new favorite pet.”

Reuben nodded.  “Oh, yes.  He’s really happy to have captured you.   I’m afraid your future is
n’t…too good.”

“Yeah, bet you say that to all the girls.  So, Rube, in light of that not-so-new-news, if you can get us out of these cages, that’ll…”

Red siren lights began to swirl above their heads, three along each wall, accompanied by loud pings.  Then an announcement through a PA system briefly interrupted the pings.

“All security except exterior patrols to Sub-level three containment.
  Immediately.  The facility is on complete lockdown.  Floor to floor access is closed off until further notice in ten minutes.  Repeat, all security except exterior patrols have ten minutes to get to Sub-level three containment.” 

Once the PA stopped, the pings resumed.

“What’s going on, Rube?”  Kalia asked.

He looked calm, but she could see in his eyes an intense panic.

“I don’t know.  But they’ve never called anything like that before. I’m going to go.  As soon as I can, I’ll alert you.  Get to Marie, Kalia, if you can before the floors are shut down.”  His eyes shot to Bryn, then Lauren, and he disappeared. 

Kalia looked at Bryn and Lauren too, and left as well.

“Fuck!”  Bryn spit out.  “So close to gettin’ this door opened.  Lauren, baby, ya still okay?”

“Yeah, although I’m hungry.
  Thirsty.  Uh, Bryn, how’re
you
doing?  You aren’t getting your calories
or
blood.”

“I’m okay.  Just need to get outta this hole in the ground.”

Lauren didn’t answer.  She hoped he did.  But she didn’t think
she
would.

Reuben arrived in the high-security containment cells located dead center on Sub-level three.  The cells consisted of six panels of six
-inch thick metal sheets made of an alloy that was stronger than anything the SRS had ever seen.  They comprised the floor, top, and four walls of five cells that the SRS considered impenetrable.  Each cell had five-inch observation panels located around them with a clear Plexiglas panel that was mirrored on the inside so that whoever inhabited the cell would not be able to see out, but observers could see in.

The room was filled with armed security, and all eight of the doctors who administered to the research and study groups in this facility
were there.  In the center of all the chaos and noise, Reuben saw Lamont holding court with a raised champagne glass.

“Everyone,” Lamont called out.  “This is a glorious day.  A day I’ve dreamed of for many years.  We have captured not one, not two, but three first blood vampires!   Now, we weren’t certain if the serum developed in Paris would work on the vampires, but a trial yesterday proved that it does.  And today, another landmark event!  The serum effectively rendered all three of these powerful vampires
, first bloods, unconscious and ineffective.”

Lamont paused,
then refilled his glass, his eyes watery.  “I’ve never felt such a sense of power, of accomplishment.  I’ve done the impossible.”

Reuben’s heart stuttered.  Oh, God.  This was tragic, with repercussions for
supernaturals the world over.  A man with no moral compass could not have this kind of control over ancient vampires with incredible power. 

A
lthough only one small man, Reuben knew in that moment, he would have to find a way to stop this.  Lamont was more evil than all of the supernatural creatures he insisted were the spawn of hell and natural enemies of the human race. 

Reuben shook his head as he walked over to look into the first cell.  On the polished silver floor, a big man
lay on his back, triple chained to massive loops embedded in the thick metal.  They didn’t stand a chance if this serum really worked the way Lamont said it did.  Reuben glanced back at the man still dressed in white, his pale hair danced wildly around his head as he excitedly shared his victory.  Only one thing on Reuben’s mind now…Lamont had to die.