No matter how many times she told herself this, she could feel the tide of fear rising within her. Closing her eyes—the only motion still her own—she struggled against the madness swirling at the edges of her mind. You can survive days. You can survive weeks, if you must.
Stepping from the hall, Quinn threw her shoulders back determinedly and opened her eyes. They became saucers as she took in more of the yellow and orange tones, but also the massive wooden desk across from her. There were no computers set up on it, but she knew immediately it was a check-in desk.
Her gaze slid to the front wall of glass, which had been painted black to block out the sun. Through some breaks in the paint, she could see the sprawling desert beyond. Three chandeliers hung above her, all of them would have cast a beautiful array of rainbow colors across the white marble floor, if they were clean. Now cobwebs covered them.
The walls remained clear of all decoration, but behind the reception desk was a large mural of an oasis in the desert. Is that what this place was supposed to be?
A jerk on her arm from one of her guards got her moving across the marble. Her bare feet didn’t make a sound, but the heels of Helena’s boots clicked against the floor. The sound grated on her nerves. She longed to clamp her hands over her ears, or break the woman’s legs off. Yes, that would have been far preferable.
Dust swirled up around them as they walked past two elevators and what she assumed was an arboretum, but the trees within were dead. One of the benches had broken and fallen on the ground, and the elaborate fountain in the middle of the space had no water in it. The brown fencing surrounding it had one piece that had fallen over, and others were leaning precariously toward the ground.
Before her, thick wooden doors were pushed open. The vampires led her through another carpeted hall with only a few doors off the side of it. Each door was spaced about fifty feet from the other one. She had no idea what lay beyond them, but they had to be massive rooms. They emerged into another hall, this one all marble. At the end of it was a set of wooden doors with elaborate flower-etched designs around the edges.
She didn’t know why, but a wedding was what came to mind when she looked at those doors. Then they opened to reveal a massive ballroom beyond, and she knew exactly why she’d been thinking wedding. Her mouth parted as she stared up at the dome-shaped ceiling with one of the largest chandeliers she’d ever seen hanging from the center of it. Around the edge of the entire room ran a second floor balcony with deep-red seats lining it.
Wedding or opera, she thought.
The floor beneath her feet would have been sparkling white marble if it had been cleaned and polished. At the end of the massive room was a stage with chairs set up on it. Earl and the other man from earlier were already sitting in the chairs. They both stopped speaking as she was led across the marble toward them. Earl and the other man rose. A lustful gleam came into Earl’s eyes as they leisurely ran over her barely there dress.
“Well done, Helena. She is much improved,” Earl murmured. Quinn forced her eyes away from the obvious arousal pressing against the front of his black pants. “Much improved and still helpless, I see.”
The urge to vomit filled her again, but she kept her mouth clamped against it. No more weakness.
“She is,” Helena said and climbed the steps to sit in one of the plush red chairs. Turning, she gestured to a spot behind her. “Put her on the floor.”
“No,” Earl said. “Bring her over here.” No! Quinn shouted in her mind. “She’ll be where it will be easier for me to command her.”
Helena shrugged and folded her hands in her lap as Quinn was led over to Earl. His hands ran over the bare flesh of her arms as his gaze fell to her exposed cleavage. Goose bumps broke out on her flesh.
“No!” she managed to protest.
“Silence,” he said as his fingers trailed toward her collarbone.
I’ll kill you! she screamed in her mind, but her lips had been superglued together by his command. His fingers dipped, and a low moan escaped him when they brushed the top of her breast.
“Enough!” Helena commanded. “Leave her be, Earl.”
He pouted like a child denied his toy, but stepped away from her. He settled into the chair, a spiteful smirk curving his mouth as he gestured to the space between his feet. “Sit.”
Quinn fought against it, but her body moved toward him of its own accord and sat in the space between his feet. He patted her head before settling back into his seat. Quinn’s head bowed, her teeth grating together as her hands fisted.
“Are the others coming?” the other man inquired.
“They will be here shortly, Marvin,” Helena replied.
Quinn lifted her head to take in Marvin. He appeared to have been turned in his mid-forties as he had lines around his eyes and mouth. The red hair of his sideburns had turned gray. His blue eyes slid to her; he studied her for a minute before turning away. He wasn’t what she would consider handsome or ugly. She supposed average would have suited him best. He was one who would have blended into the crowd while alive and would only draw attention now because of the power he emitted as a vampire.
A muffled sound by the doors drew Quinn’s attention back to them as the first of the vampires shuffled in. Curious murmurs went through the crowd as they studied her. Judging by the lack of power emanating from them, she didn’t get the impression that these vamps were very old. A couple of them stood out as older than the others, but they weren’t as old as the three on the stage with her. Still, even with their youthful ages, she would guess most of the vampires, except for maybe six or so, were older than she was.
In the beginning, she tried to keep track of their numbers, but she lost count at a hundred as the crowd continued to swell. She guessed there were nearly two hundred, if not more, in the room with her by the time they stopped coming forward.
If Julian did somehow manage to find her, he’d never be able to take on such a vast number, and she wouldn’t want him to try. Hopelessness swirled through her, but she fought it back. Nothing was hopeless while she still lived. She’d find her way out of this mess, somehow.
If she could use her power, she’d destroy Earl and break his grasp on her. It was just figuring out how to do that. She’d been in bad situations in her life, and she’d managed to survive them. This may be the worst one so far, but where there was a will, there was a way, and she was determined to have that man dying in her hands.
She realized the eldest of the vampires, about twenty of them, stood the closest to the stage. Their power radiated from them and their eyes were assessing as they ran over her. Behind them, she picked out vampires with glassy, sightless eyes amongst the crowd. There were maybe a dozen of them, but she knew they were under Earl’s control or he’d created them and kept their minds. She wondered if the others knew about them.
“Doesn’t look like much,” a brunette woman near the front commented.
“That’s because I have her leashed.” The prideful tone of Earl’s voice caused her fingers to clench more as he patted her head again. “She’s such an obedient little creature right now, but I assure you, she’s lethal.”
“Is she the one we’re seeking?” another older vamp inquired.
“She is,” Helena said and rose to her feet. “The girl’s mother was a Hunter who was turned by a vampire while pregnant. She produced a half Hunter, half vampire offspring.” Helena’s red-tipped fingers briefly flashed toward her. “When Earl killed her, this combination allowed her to be reborn as one of us, without his blood.
“As we all know, the prophecy states, ‘A vampire, not born of vampire blood, will burn like the sun the life from anyone she touches. If used correctly, she will become our greatest ally, our savior.’ This girl was not born of vampire blood, not as we all were.”
All those eyes swung toward her once more. “Is this true?” the older vamp asked her.
Earl nudged her in the back. “You will answer all questions they have truthfully, now.”
Quinn could feel the fire in her eyes burning brighter as she fought against the command. A few of the vamps closest to her gasped and pointed at her eyes; others nudged each other excitedly. “Her eyes. How strange. How fascinating.” The agitated murmurs raced through the crowd. Their chatter grew, but the older vamps in the front remained concentrated on her as they awaited her answer.
“Yes,” she finally said from between her teeth.
“What about the burn like the sun part? Does she wield fire? Is she our savior?” The questions were fired at her from all around the room.
“Better than fire,” Earl said excitedly. “Much better.”
With a wave of his hand, he gestured to someone beyond the red curtains lining the stage. Quinn frowned as two vampires emerged. They were holding the arms of a young girl as they dragged her forward. Quinn had never seen the human before, but with her dark hair, brown eyes, and the gold locket around her neck, the girl reminded her of her cousin, Betsy. Something she knew had been intentional on Earl’s part.
“Bring the girl here,” Earl commanded. The girl’s eyes swung wildly around the room; her frantic heartbeat pounded against her ribs. The cries escaping her reminded Quinn of a coyote with its leg caught in a trap. “Seat her beside our guest.”
An uneasy feeling turned in Quinn’s stomach as they sat the girl next to her. Earl cupped the young girl’s chin within his hand as he lifted it. “Things are about to get a lot more fun, dear.” He turned toward Quinn. “You are to use your ability to drain her. Not your fangs, just your ability.”
“No.” Quinn winced against the pain that lanced through her brain at the denial.
Earl leaned toward her. “Yes.”
Quinn tried to move back, but her body remained pinned to the spot where Earl had told her to sit. He grabbed hold of her hands. “Open them.” Her traitorous fingers sprang open at his command. Earl moved her hands toward the girl who tried to shrink away from Quinn, but the vampires holding her kept her in place. Earl rested one of Quinn’s hands over the girl’s heart and the other over the locket in the center of her chest bone. “She is the only one you can use your power on. Now, drain her.”
Quinn shook her head, but she could feel those denied tentacles slipping forward, seeking out the life force they’d been so desperately seeking since Hawtie. A scream echoed in her head, despite his earlier command, tears sprang forth in her eyes and slid free as those tentacles latched onto the girl.
“Please no,” she whimpered as she felt the girl’s life flowing into her hands.
She’d lost control of her power before, but now she had absolutely no control over it as it fed. Not a Hunter or vampire, the girl would drain faster than any other Quinn had taken from before. The girl’s rosebud mouth parted, and her deep-brown eyes were the size of an owl’s as they rolled within her head.
“I’m so sorry,” Quinn whispered.
The girl’s cheekbones stood out more sharply and the color leached from her skin as Quinn feasted on her life. The weight slipped away from her victim’s body. More whispered words of excitement and distress raced through the massive crowd. Tears streamed down Quinn’s face as her malnourished cells were filled.
Then she realized something. Earl had said to drain her, but he hadn’t said to drain her to the point of death, and he hadn’t said she couldn’t return the life back to her. The girl’s heart gave a stuttering beat as her breath rattled out of her chest. The whites of her eyes had already turned a yellowish hue and were leaning toward brown now.
Gritting her teeth, Quinn forced her body to give up the life force it had been so desperately craving. Forced herself to give up the strength she needed. She’d survive this ordeal, but she wouldn’t become like one of them in order to do so. She’d rather die.
Life flooded back into the girl. Like a balloon refilling, her face filled out again, and her eyes and skin returned to their normal hue. Her heart beat more solidly in her chest as she inhaled gulping breaths of air.
“What are you doing?” Earl snarled.
Quinn threw herself backward, tearing her hands away from the girl. Her body jerked to a halt when it came up against Earl’s knee. Air didn’t fill her deadened lungs, but she panted for it. She often had this kind of a reaction when she used her ability. She fought to regain what little control she still had over herself.
The girl gazed at her in awe, her eyes frightened and relieved as they met Quinn’s. She felt almost a little guilty over the admiration in the girl’s gaze. She’d kept a small piece of the girl’s life for herself; she’d need the strength it would give to her.
Despite her guilt, she found her mouth curving into a smile at the girl. Their eyes met and held. They were prisoners together, and together they would escape this. Quinn would make sure of that.
Before she knew what he planned, Earl stretched over her and snapped the girl’s neck. The sound of it echoed in the vast room.
A scream erupted from Quinn. She lurched forward as the girl’s body slumped to the stage. Pain lanced through her brain as she broke free of her place on the floor. Her hands fell upon the girl’s chest; she could fix her. She could fix her…
Earl grabbed hold of Quinn’s arms, yanking her away before she could do anything to help. Another screamed escaped her as she thrashed against his hold. “Stop moving.”
Her body instantly went limp. Her power surged toward him, but his command from earlier remained strong enough to keep it trapped within her body before it could take hold of him. “Stop crying.”
The tears ceased their flow, and the ones on her cheeks dried against her skin. Misery and fury blended within her. All she could do was sit there staring at the girl.
“Next time, keep the life for yourself. I’m going to kill anyone you allow to live anyway,” Earl told her.
He grabbed both of her arms and jerked them so they were half behind her back as he spun her to face the crowd. “Does that answer your question about what she can do?” he inquired.
The curiosity in the surrounding eyes told her the display had done more than that. It had also wet their appetite.
“She’s young, and you see what she can already do,” Earl continued. Quinn’s head bowed, but she forced herself to lift it again to defiantly meet the eyes of all those gathered within the room. “Imagine what years of training and practice will bring to her ability; to us! We’ll have one of the most powerful vampires on the planet under our control and she’ll do whatever we want her to do. We will never have to run or hide from the Hunters, Elders, or humans again.”
“What of the remaining Elders?” another vamp by the stage inquired. “They work with the Hunters now and will come after her and us.”
“That’s where it gets even better,” Helena said. Quinn itched to claw the smile from her face. “The girl has confirmed the Elder, Julian, is her mate.”
“What does that mean?” someone from the middle of the crowd called out.
“That means he’ll do anything for her.” Earl ran his hand over her face, under her chin, and back up again. “And right now, I have complete control over her. I can make her do anything we command, and he will do anything to keep her from being hurt or abused in any way.”
Quinn barely managed to suppress a whimper; she closed her eyes against the eagerness those words caused to glow in some of the eyes in the crowd.
“Not only do we possess the vampire of the prophecy, but we will also possess one of the two remaining Elders when Julian comes for her, and he will come for her.”
Quinn opened her eyes to take in the sea of faces. They all blurred before her, but she could see uneasiness growing amongst some in the crowd as they shifted and spoke with each other.
“I’m not so sure about this,” one of the older ones near the stage said in a loud, clear voice.
“What is there to be unsure about?” Marvin demanded.
“First, as she grows older and her power grows, how can you be so sure you can keep her restra
ined?”
“I can keep her restrained until we have broken her to our way,” Earl replied confidently.
The man’s sympathetic gaze traveled over her. “I don’t think she’s going to be so easily broken.”
“Everyone has their limits,” Helena replied. “She’s more of a vampire than any of us because of her unnatural birth. Her natural instincts to kill will eventually take control of her, and she will stop trying to fight us.”
“It seems so wrong,” another man standing to her right muttered.
“Does it?” Earl spat. “You knew what you were in for when you came here.”
“No, we didn’t,” a woman replied crisply. “You said you had the vampire of the prophecy. That she would work with us. You said nothing about keeping her mentally chained like a dog, which is something you are enjoying far too much for my liking.”
“Are you vampires or pussies?” Earl barked.
“Earl!” Helena snapped and lifted a hand to silence him. She turned toward the crowd and spread her hands out before her. “We must do what we must in order to survive. The Hunters and Guardians are growing stronger every day. Our only two remaining Elders work side by side with our enemies to help their numbers grow. They would slaughter any one of you if given the opportunity.
“She is the only advantage we have over them. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy my life, and I will do whatever it takes to preserve it. Even if it means having to keep one vampire imprisoned until she realizes her true nature and how important she is to the survival of our kind. Julian was a killer for centuries; it won’t take much for him to revert back to his old nature.”
Heads bowed toward each other as they debated her words. Earl roughly threw Quinn to the ground as he strode toward the edge of the stage. Quinn glared at his back as she drew her brutalized arms forward. She really hoped Helena was wrong, but she knew Julian was capable of anything when it came to her.
“Julian is with Hunters and Guardians now,” another vampire said. “What do we do with them if they come here too?”
“Kill them,” Earl said flatly.