Final Days (22 page)

Alisa had met a lot of people from a lot of places around the world, and she knew the answer was yes.

What made a person this fucked up?  And, oh, yeah…  The vampire comment. 
Vampire?
  The woman said she was a vampire…like Alisa’s lover.

As if she needed any more evidence that her abductor was completely nuts.  She put her hand on her neck.  It was smooth and unbroken.  Smiling, Alisa guessed her “vampire” must not have been very hungry.

With something in her stomach, and relief from the pressure on her bladder, Alisa stood and searched the area thoroughly.  There was nothing that looked helpful.  So, what the hell?  She started yelling.

“Hey!  Is anyone around here?  Hey! 
Is anybody here?  Answer me!  I can scream all day!”

A sliding door pushed aside about a hundred feet away and one of the men
that she’d seen before came through.  One of the men who took her off the street in front of Mama Giovanni’s.

“Yeah, I guess you can. 
Won’t do you any good, so go ahead.  No one will hear you.”

“Where am I?  Where have you taken me?”

‘I don’t know,” He came up next to her.  “Somewhere in South America.”

“What?” 
South America?
  What the hell?  That couldn’t be right.

“Why would you bring me to South America?”

“Because our mistress ordered us to.   She wants us to keep you until she comes again.”

“Look, you have to know this is wrong.  Please let me go.  You look like a nice man who knows better than this.”

“I am, and I’m sorry.  But I have no choice.  Mistress Mercury controls us.”

“Controls you?  How?
Blackmail?”

“I don’t really know.  But we have no choice.  If she commands us, we must do whatever is expected.  I’m glad you ate the chips.  When she calls to say we can feed you again, I’ll get you something better.”

“When she calls to say you can feed me?”

“We are not to feed you unless she calls us and says we can.  I’ll get you something softer to sleep on.  We might be here a long time.”

Alisa had been very worried when she woke up.  Now she was terrified.  This was so fucking crazy.  What was wrong with this man?  He really did seem like a nice man who would not do something like this.  Yet he made it clear he would comply with whatever crazy-ass thing this bitch asked of him.

“Let me go.  Please.  You know this is wrong.”

“I do.  I want to unchain you and drive you home to Chicago.  But I can’t.  Understand this is out of our control.  No matter how much you beg, I can’t let you go.  But I’ll try to make sure you’re taken care of.”

Alisa shook her head.  “No.  You can’t do this.”  She paused.  “I’m sick.  I have ALS.  I need medication.  Look, if you keep me here like this, I could die.”

“I’m sorry, I really am.  But you’re as trapped as we are.  I’ll get you some blankets.”

He turned and walked out without looking back, pulling the door
closed behind him.

Dropping back onto the cold concrete floor, Alisa felt moisture on her cheeks as tears slipped down.  Koen would never find her here.  He’d told her he could find her any place on earth.  But she knew she was in real trouble now.

The men that Numbers One and Two had chosen for her were excellent.  Windari finished a marathon session of sex with both of her new blood-bonds. 

“Outstanding, Three and Four.  Go sleep, and when you wake, we may have to repeat that.”

They disappeared and she threw herself back on her new bed and smiled
, elated.  All was going so well now that she had been fortunate enough to find Koen’s weakness.   She’d been able to confirm that Ahmose had pulled his search teams out of the city.   And Numbers One and Two told her they found an isolated and secure location to keep her little leverage package.  Soon, she would go down there and make sure all was good, but she couldn’t risk it yet, since there was still a chance that Koen would pull off some kind of surveillance that would lead him to his little human lover.  Then she would be back in the same trouble she’d been when she left her village in South Africa…homeless and hunted. 

But not now.
  Now she still had full run of this city and all of its treasures.  And although she knew she would eventually have to get out of here, for the moment, she quite enjoyed her victory over the powerful first blood males.  She’d bested them and brought them to their knees.

She grinned.   If only she could have done that literally.  How nice to have been able to make both Ahmose and Koen service her.  She would love to have those men waiting in line to drop their impressive cocks into her. 
Perhaps another time.  Releasing a sigh of pleasure, she reached for her cell phone.

“Number One.
  How is our little detainee?”

“She’s angry. 
Confused.  Trying to figure out how to escape.”

“Sure.  Tell her good luck with that.  You can feed her.  And let her know I plan to jet in to see her someday soon.  Take good care of her, One, since she is very important to my plans.  I call her my little Ace, as in my
winning hand.  You understand.   If there are any problems, you contact me right away.”

“Yes, mistress.”

“Well, then, give her something nice to eat.  Later.”

Rest, an amazing breakfast, and perhaps more guy on guy on girl action when the sun left the sky tonight.
  Windari slept well with a clear conscience and an expectation of a great night ahead.

TWENTY

Cherise and Katerine arrived to hugs and hearty welcomes.  Koen stood back as the women were pulled into Alisa’s apartment. 

He hadn’t seen Katerine in a while.  She was lovely, as always.  The one first blood female he had always been attracted to, but had never been with.  She’d been with the first blood male
, David, in Iceland for centuries and he’d never had the opportunity.

Her eyes sought him as soon as she came into the room.  He could see the pain in them.  After hugging Park and Eillia, she came straight to him.

“Koen,” she said softly, and hugged him, tightly and for what was longer than was considered normal.  He knew it was because she understood his pain.   They had always had a connection, even through many relationships with other people over centuries.

“Are you okay?”  Katerine asked when she pulled away.

“You know I’m not.  But if you four extraordinarily talented women can find my mate, I will be the happiest man that ever existed.”

“You know we will give it everything we have.”

Koen nodded.  “I do.  In this room, for the first time, I have the collected women who have meant the most to me in my life.  To help me find the one who will mean the most to me for the rest of it, if I am in favor with the universe.”

“You always have been.  But you are so hard on yourself.  We love you and always will.  It is so good to see
you again, old friend.  Although I would have wished for better circumstances. I cannot wait to meet the woman who finally stole your heart to make sure she is worthy.”

“
She is worthy.”

“I know she must be.  We will find her, Koen.”

He hugged her again and turned to Cherise, who finally made it through the other women.

“Hello, little empath.  Thank you for coming.”

“I will do what I can, Koen, but you know my skills can be unpredictable.  I wish I could assure you of success.”

“I wish you could as well.  But I will take any hope at this moment.”

“Good.  Then we will begin.  Let’s move this furniture back away from the center of the room.”

Pushing back the sofa and moving the end
-table between it and the recliner made enough room for all four of the women to sit in a circle.

Cherise took over as she usually did for one of these spiritual journeys.  It was her skill as a born empath and she was very good at it.  Combining the power of all four women would give her a boost that would allow her to send her gift out into the air to search for Alisa.  It would be an assured success if they had a blood trace…anyone who she had exchanged blood with.  But that wasn’t the case. 

Koen dropped onto the sofa that now sat askew near the wall and picked up the begging puppy at his feet.  He felt entirely responsible for Alisa’s abduction and their inability to find her so far.

While he promised Windari he would not search for
her
, he had promised nothing about searching for Alisa.  So, while they were preparing to use first blood magic to find her, he also had Tim doing the usual surveillance and city-by-city camera searches for any sight of her.  He knew she wasn’t with Windari, so she had to be with blood-bonds who would follow Windari’s orders without question.  It terrified him that they might really be under orders to feed her only if they received a daily message from their mistress to do so.  He believed Windari when she said Alisa was out of the country.  That made perfect sense if Windari expected to survive this for very long.

Cherise took Park and
Eillia’s hands as they took Katerine’s.   Now, the four women were physically linked and they closed their eyes to link psychically.  All four had done this before so they slipped easily into the place beyond this corporeal realm where they would connect on the spiritual plane.

Koen watched them as they moaned and then did not move or make another sound for a good fifteen minutes.  But Samson did, squirming and whining until Koen finally got him to sit down and lay his head on his paws.  Koen wanted to do the same thing, but he co
uldn’t take his eyes off these incredible, powerful women who had traveled halfway around the world to help him find Alisa.  They reminded him how fortunate this past year of how his life had been.  If he could find Alisa, bring her over safely, then take her home with him to France, his life would be as good as it could ever possibly be.  He glanced upward to seek forbearance from the universe and remind it he was a good man.  He hoped it would be enough to let him finally be completely happy.

Suddenly, simultaneously, all four women jerked backwards, their falls slowed by their linked hands, which released to let them gently drop back against the carpeted floor.  He set the pup aside and hurried over to check on each of them.  As they roused, he helped them upright to murmured “thank
yous.”

He stared at Cherise as she opened her eyes and looked into his.

She shook her head.  “I’m so sorry, Koen.”  Her heightened emotions were evident in her French accent, which was heavier than usual.  “We could not connect with her.  She has no magic and there is nothing to trace.  We searched all avenues we could.  Any possible shadow.  But human lifeforces are just too weak to read on the spiritual plane.  She’s hidden in commonality.  Too many human patterns too weak to link to anyone.  I’m truly sorry, but I cannot find her.”

Park had moved to her father’s side.  His face was hard as stone and she knew it was because he was trying not to explode in fury or break down in tears.

“I understand.  I knew it was unlikely.  You know how much I appreciate what you tried to do for me.  For her.  If you will excuse me…”

He smiled, his mouth curled up in the motion, but it did not reach his eyes.  He touched each woman gently on the shoulder as he passed by and left the apartment.

Park noticed she was not the only one in the room with moist eyes.

“Can we try again?”

Cherise nodded, and Park took her place once more.

Down on the edge of the Chicago River, Koen stood watching reflections of the cit
y’s lights in the smooth water.  All right.  This wasn’t a surprise.  They’d tried, it just wasn’t doable.

He would find her, just not tonight.  Every drop of blood moving through his body told him to go find Windari and make her take him to Alisa.  But he believed her when she said she wasn’t afraid to die, and he believed her when she said that she would happily make sure Alisa died too.  That was an outcome Koen could not allow.
 

Flipping open his cell phone, he called Daniel,
Eillia’s husband and mate.

“Daniel, listen, I need you to put me in touch with some of your old friends.  Call me as soon as you get this message.”

Mercenaries.  Men who would do whatever it took to accomplish their mission.  Men with skills Koen needed.  Daniel had been a mercenary himself before an awful event that led to tragedy, soul-searching pain, and ultimately, to Eillia.  He would know who Koen needed to hire.

And when he had Alisa safe in his arms again, he’d hunt Windari down
.

TWENTY ONE

Alisa lay on the soft pallet of blankets
Martin provided to make a bed for her shortly after she was brought here to this miserable rat-hole in the armpit of the world.  It was the extent of what she could do with her long days, the chains that had been attached by cuffs to her wrists not long enough to move more than ten feet in any direction from the post she was tethered to.

The highlight of each day was when he brought her food and stayed to spend some time with her.   She actually enjoyed his company and was so grateful that he took the time to tell her a little bit about what was happening in the world and
to sometimes bring her a newspaper or magazine.  Often they were in Portuguese, but she could read some of it.  Just to have something, anything, to occupy her mind.

Martin
also built her a little privy and had given her a plastic bucket to use for her elimination needs.  He’d helped her cut off the sweater dress which was too warm and smelled now, and gave her a lightweight shirt and pants.  No shoes, but she didn’t need those. 

She was lucky he was such a kind man.  Although she’d long ago stopped trying to convince him to help her, or let her go, or give her a cell phone.  For whatever reasons, he maintained the crazy idea that he didn’t want to keep her
prisoner, that he desperately wanted to get her back home, but that he had no ability to refuse the orders of the woman that Alisa now knew he called Mistress Mercury.

She’d pleaded with him, tried to use reason, empathy, seduction…but nothing worked.  It
was
really odd.  Alisa could see in his face, in his eyes, he was a good man.  He took excellent care of her and brought her the best food he could find.  

Martin even protected her from the other man here with him, a handsome, but hard man named Brian, who had decided that Alisa was really pretty and needed some company.  Brian had decided one day that he needed to “get him some of that,” tore off Alisa’s shirt, and would have raped her if Martin hadn’t beaten the shit out of him and told him he’d kill him if he touched her. 

Brian confronted Martin, told him that Mistress Mercury would not allow him to hurt her.  Instantly, Brian’s expression changed and he walked away. Now, he rarely ever came into the building where Alisa was being held.  Still, Martin stood sentry and kept her safe. 

Yet he would not release her.

Her condition had continued to deteriorate.  Without her medications, she was losing the ability to walk.  Standing took concentration and effort, and even that didn’t help sometimes.  She was trying to stay fit by doing simple calisthenics but it was getting harder and harder each day.  And she was losing the fine motor skills of her hands.   The condition was progressing quickly.  If she remained here, she might not live out the year.

Her greatest sorrow now was the loss of her limited time left that she wanted to share with Koen.  Nothing gave her greater pleasure than closing her eyes and conjuring up his smiling face.  He was so beautiful, not a detail had left her sharp memory through any of the two months she knew she’d been
in her prison.

During the first few weeks here, at night, when her abductors were gone, she would slide off her panties and touch herself as if it were Koen.  Just the thought of him down there, his lips and tongue tugging at her, would bring her to orgasm so powerfully, she would cry out.  God, she needed to get back to him before it was too late.

Now, though, she couldn’t manage to massage the area well enough to make herself come.  She was sorry, too, because that was when she felt him most.

In her despondency, she admitted he likely would never find her now.  He would have been looking the entire time, she knew that.  But since he hadn’t found her, it was reasonable to assume she was un
-findable.

She still had nights when she would think of what they were missing, and then cry herself to sleep for all the lost moments.  She missed her life.  She missed the puppy that was even now growing up without her. 
And she would always miss the man who brought her love when she never thought to ever find it at all.

Two months of hell.  He hadn’t found her yet.  Percy had shown up several times and he compelled him with memories of a good visit with Alisa and sent him away.

He wasn’t sleeping much and had little interest in food.  It was just him and Samson
in Alisa’s apartment.  Everyone had lives to return to.  His was stopped here, now.

He’d converted Alisa’s apartment for vampire lifestyle since he wasn’t planning to leave until he had her back in his arms.

One night the doorbell rang and when he opened it, Lauren stood on the other side.

“Is she all right?”  Lauren asked.

He hesitated.  Lauren had been a godsend after David’s release from decades of torture.  She knew all of his family too well, one of the few uncontrolled humans who had full knowledge of the first blood world.

“She’s my friend, Koen.  I haven’t heard from her in two months.  I know how volatile your world can be.  Is she all right, that’s all I want to
know.”

After a moment,
Koen shook his head.  “No.  I don’t know where she is.  She was taken by a murderous first blood and I can’t find her.”

Lauren could see how much pain he was in.  With a deep breath, she walked into the room.

“Well.  Another vampire kidnapping.  It must be Tuesday.”