Consumed by Suzanne Wright
“We can’t destroy the cameras. It would make the guard suspicious.” Harvey seemed to like to point out the obvious.
Twisting her lips, Sam tapped her chin. “If we lure the bloke out first and deal with him in a spot the others won’t see, we can take him out of the equation quickly.”
Reuben tied his shoulder-length brown hair back with a rubber band. “How do we lure him out?”
“Denny, any chance you could shoot some of your green slime onto the camera at the side of the manor?” asked Sam. “On the black and white monitors, it’ll look more like some kind of bird shit to him. He won’t be worried, but he’ll most likely come out to check and clean it off.”
Denny rolled his shoulders. “I can do that.” Another of his animal mimic abilities was to ooze slime out of his pores like Hagfish. In vampire-speed, he’d rounded the corner of the manor. Still hidden in the trees, he shot a small stream of ooze into the sky. We all watched as it flew down and landed on the camera with a splat.
Once he was back, Sam and Jared nodded their approval at him. Soon enough, a burly Pagori dressed in a black suit stalked out of the patio doors, briefly greeting the chauffeurs and moaning about fucking birds.
“Well, what do you know, it worked.” Harvey sounded astonished and amused.
Offended, Sam glowered at him. “Of course it worked.”
As the guy reached the camera, Jared spoke. “Chico, take care of this one. Your method makes less sound than ours, and we don’t want the chauffeurs to hear anything.”
“No problem.” A millisecond later, Chico stood where Denny had previously been; holding his hand out, palm up. Three darts imbedded themselves in the burly Pagori, making him soundlessly explode into ashes.
“One down,” Harvey quietly sang when Chico returned.
“Now for the chauffeurs.” Jared turned to Max. “You first. Then Sam, Chico, and David can do their thing.”
Once Max had paralysed the chauffeurs’ senses – leaving them unable to cry out for help or see their enemies to defend themselves – Sam, Chico, and David attacked; Sam threw an energy ball, Chico shot more darts, and David splayed his fingers wide and sent out a psionic blast. Like that, all three Pagoris were ashes.
“Four down,” sang Harvey.
Chico sighed at him. “Okay, that could get annoying real fast.”
“Time to go inside,” declared Jared.
Sam danced her gaze along all of us as she spoke. “Do what you always do: attack first, and attack hard, because you never know what gift the vampire facing you will have. And remember: I want the keeper alive.”
Gripping my chin, Salem gave me a hard glance. “Stay alive.”
I nodded. “You, too.”
And then Jared teleported us all inside.
The receptionists gawked, their eyes wide. Before they had a chance to call for help or react in any way, Max paralysed their senses. A psionic blast from David and an energy ball from Sam destroyed them a mere millisecond later.
Turning to the left, we found that the bartender, the keeper, and two clients had jumped to their feet. Salem, Sam, Max, and Denny attacked just as the keeper starting screaming orders, the bartender doubled in size, and one of the clients conjured a spear of frost. As others from the squad raced up the stairs, Jared teleported me and Damien to the attic.
We appeared outside the door just as two naked Pagori males rushed out, obviously having heard the commotion. As one took a swipe at Jared with a set of steel claws that he barely evaded, the other lashed at me with a long leather barbed whip that was stained with blood – and I had to wonder if he’d been using it on whoever was in the attic. Well, shit. The whip caught my face, and one of the barbs slashed my skin. Fucking ouch.
“Whatever you do, don’t let those claws touch you!” shouted Jared.
A brief glance at them told me why: they were dripping with luminous yellow liquid. Poison, I knew. See, you should always be wary of anything luminous.
Hearing the shouting, crashing, and roaring that was coming from the floors below us, I knew the battle was in full flow. And was that the screech of a hawk?
The whip came at me again, but I dodged it just as Jared aimed a bolt of electricity at its owner. The bastard slammed up a gleaming shield that looked much like glass. He smirked tauntingly, earning himself a growl from Jared.
As if he thought I would be the easiest target, Claws struck out at me. So dumb. Thanks to my gift, I could take out a vampiric version of Jackie Freaking Chan. Moving so fast that the action was a blur, I dealt him a solid palm strike to the nose. The sickening crunch made me wince inwardly. Before he had a chance to retaliate, I swiftly followed it up with a blow to the kidneys, a punch to the solar plexus, and a kick to the kneecap. The pain seemed to ripple down his body, making me smile in satisfaction.
I was peripherally aware that the other Pagori had just wrapped the whip around Damien’s ankle, whose astral-self had been darting around in an attempt to distract the fucker. But said fucker unfortunately wasn’t stupid. Before he could drag Damien’s body to him, Jared aimed yet another bolt at him. Once again, the shield saved him. Taking me by surprise, though, it cracked slightly. Huh. So it wasn’t unbreakable. That meant Jared could –
Suddenly we all dropped to our knees as a deafening, ear-splitting sonic boom of sound seemed to echo throughout the building. Pain pounded through my head, making my vision blur and my ears bleed. Knowing I was close to passing out, I forced myself to breathe and think through the pain. My vision cleared…just in time to see that Claws was quickly recovering, the asshole.
Standing now, blood pouring from his nose, he again came at me. I jumped to my feet and managed to dodge his claws, but I knew that if it hadn’t been for my gift, poison would be streaming through my veins right then. He launched himself at me, and I retaliated with blows to the jaw, ribs, shoulder, face, and temple. Disorientated, he blinked and staggered. A punch to the throat followed by a kick to the groin had him stooping, cupping his balls and dick.
“Get up!” Damien’s astral-self yelled at Jared, who was still on his knees.
Whip Boy laughed, dropping his arms – and inadvertently dropping his shield. That was all the opening Jared, who was apparently faking, needed. He projected a powerful lightning bolt hard enough to make the bastard explode into ashes. Ha.
Instinct made me return my attention to Claws, who was back on his feet and charging at me. Before I even had the chance to react, psychic energy rippled through the air and crashed into his head…knocking him out cold. Salem. As Jared happily reduced Claws to ashes with a bolt of electricity to the heart, I turned to Salem, who was then at my side. “Thanks.”
Salem’s eyes did a quick head-to-toe study of me, presumably looking for injuries. “I’ll stay with her and Damien,” he told Jared. “Go to Sam.”
Jared didn’t argue, clearly anxious to get to her, even though he would know through their bond that she was alive.
“We need to get the girl.” Salem took my hand in his and led Damien and I into the attic.
We stopped dead at the sight. Holy shit, Stuart hadn’t been exaggerating when he called it a ‘torture chamber’. Dark and bleak with blood-stained walls, it stank of fear and despair. It was empty apart from some medieval-looking devices, a bed with cuffs attached, and a table that…Fuck, I didn’t even want to know what half of the sadistic implements on it were.
The girl was naked, blindfolded, gagged, and bleeding from several places. In addition, she was hanging limply from the fucking ceiling by a rope that bound her wrists.
Moving closer, I was able to see that though her injuries were closing due to her preternatural-enhanced healing, they had been painful and horrific. Her breasts, groin, and the soles of her feet had been thrashed with a barbed whip – no doubt the one belonging to the bastard Jared had just killed. Her Achilles tendons had been sliced, and holes had been drilled into her arms and legs. Additionally, it seemed that someone had tried to literally bite
I swallowed hard, tasting bile. “Oh. My. God. W-why would someone ever do that? Why?”
Salem squeezed my hand in comfort. “Because people can be evil, Ava.”
“We have to get her down.” Damien’s voice was vibrating with anger.
“Is there a blanket or something we can wrap around her?” Salem asked me as he and Damien moved to free the girl.
“I’ll look.”
Damien moved behind her and untied the gag and blindfold. “She’s unconscious – either she’s still sedated, or she passed out with the pain or blood loss.”
After a quick search around the room, I sighed. “There are no clean sheets or any clothes.”
“We’ll have to use the one from the bed.” Salem eyed it with distaste. Understandable, since it was stained with blood and semen. But it was better than nothing.
“Can you hold onto her while I untie her wrists?” asked Damien. Nodding, Salem gently took her weight while Damien freed her, and I quickly helped him wrap the sheet around her.
“Take her,” he told Damien. That was when her eyelids flipped open. “We’re not here to hurt you, we –” Salem broke off as her eyes bled to black. Then it was like a wave of energy splayed out of her and sent he, Damien and I careening into the walls.
I coughed, getting to my feet. “Fuck. You guys okay?” Hearing grunts of affirmation, I turned my attention to the girl who had crumpled to the floor, her black eyes honed on me. “Demon.” Well, shit.
Having met demons before, I knew to be scared. They weren’t evil like the stories said. Just like other species, they could be good or they could be bad. But the entity that lived inside them – the one looking right at me through black eyes – was a whole other matter.
“Only one thing is fucking stopping me from hurling a psychic punch in your direction, which is that you’ve been hurt bad enough,” Salem snapped at the demon as he stood upright. “But if you attack her again, I won’t hesitate.” The demon didn’t react in any way.
Indicating for the others not to move closer, I spoke to the demon, my voice clear and steady. “I know you can hear the shit going on downstairs. You could hear it before we came inside, couldn’t you? You waited. Knew this was your chance to get out.”
The black eyes just stared at me blankly.
“We were helping you.”
“You’re one of them.” The voice was flat, toneless, and tired. “I don’t want your help.”
“You’re not too fond of vampires right now. I get that. Personally, I’m ashamed of what my own kind have done. That’s why we’re here. To make them pay, and to burn this place to the ground. I don’t think you want to be here when that happens.” Demons could control and call on fire, but not if they were as weak as the one before me. “You dug deep and used what energy you had left to fight whatever is sedating you and fight us. But we both know that little act drained you.”
“I’m not going with you.”
I couldn’t exactly blame her. If the situation had been reversed, I’d have said the same thing. If we took the demon to The Hollow, she would bring hell on us the moment she was fully recovered. “There’s a teleporter with us who can take you wherever you want to go.”
A brief pause. “How can I trust him?”
“You can’t. I wouldn’t expect you to. But if you stay here, you’ll die. What do you have to lose at this point?”
Another pause, this one longer. “Get the teleporter.”
“Damien, astral project your ass to Jared, please. If the danger’s died down, ask him to come up here.” With a nod, he did as I asked.
It was a few minutes before Jared appeared, just as Damien returned to his body. The demon was barely hanging on to consciousness at that point.
Before I could say anything, Salem asked Jared, “Everything under control down there?”
“The clients and staff are dead, except for the keeper. She’s hog-tied with Denny’s slime, so she isn’t going anywhere. We’re starting to free the captives. What’s going on here?”
“I need you to teleport her away,” I replied. “She doesn’t want to come with us, but she can’t leave by herself.” Seeing his confusion as he met those black eyes, I explained. “She’s a demon.”
“You want me to touch a demon?” His expression said, ‘Are you fucking crazy?’
“We owe her. For what our kind did, we owe her.”
For the first time, Jared seemed to really see the room, see the signs of torture. Sighing in resignation, he gently scooped the demon up off the floor. The guy was no coward. “Where do you want to go?”
“The Underground,” she slurred.
“Ha!” I barked. “No fucking way.” Both Jared and the demon double-blinked. I knew about The Underground. “If he appears there with you looking like that, every demon there will dive on him. And a whole lot of them will die, because he’s no easy target. Try again.”
Respect and a hint of impatience flashed in the demon’s eyes. “My apartment.” She gave Jared the address.
“If I get there and find myself surrounded, I’ll teleport us both back here. Understand?” His voice wasn’t harsh, but it was firm and brooked no bullshit. The demon gave him a curt nod. Sweeping his gaze across Salem, Damien, and I, he then said, “I’ll meet you guys downstairs in a minute.”
Once Jared disappeared, Salem turned to me. “You handled that well. Later you can tell me how you know about demons. Right now, we need to make sure everyone’s okay.”
It turned out that a few were badly hurt, but all would heal soon enough. Max had a fever, which was apparently a side effect of having a spear of frost penetrate his chest. Stuart was absolutely covered in deep claw marks, courtesy of hawk talons belonging to a shapeshifting vampire. Reuben’s eardrums had burst as he’d been right next to the vampire who’d released the sonic boom of sound. Also, Denny was barely conscious after being attacked by one of the captives he freed; the guy turned out to be a psi-vampire, and after taking a huge amount of Denny’s energy he’d managed to escape.
As for the other captives, only nine of them were vampires – one of whom was killed by a maid who had teleported from room to room, picking off captives. In addition to the vampire, she’d killed two humans, a coyote shifter, and a witch before she was destroyed.
Apart from the demon and vampires, the only other left to live was – in Harvey’s words – ‘a guy whose skin turned to scales as he grew wings and flew the fuck away’. Most were speculating that he was a dragon shifter who hadn’t had enough energy to fully transform.
It was shortly after Jared teleported the last of the survivors and the injured squad members to The Hollow that the brothel keeper finally woke. She looked nervous as all shit to find herself surrounded by several vampires, all of whom were glaring at her with pure hatred.
When her gaze settled on Sam and Jared, she swallowed hard. Sweat beaded on her brow as her pulse began to pound – I could hear it from where I stood with Salem.
Clasping her hands behind her back, Sam grinned. “Hi, remember me? I’m the one who caught you with my whip when you tried to make a run for it. Not before you ordered your bartender to kill me, of course.”
Nervously, the woman peeked at Sam. “I’m sorry, your Grandness. I didn’t realise it was you when I made that order.”
Sam groaned in annoyance. “I hate that title.” She sighed, taking a step toward the woman. “It’s really not my authority that you need to worry about. It’s the fact that I’m a homicidal bitch who’s balancing on the knife-edge of ‘insane’.”
“Balancing?” snickered Jared.
“All right, maybe I fell off the edge some time ago.” She shrugged. “It makes life more interesting.”
“You knew who we were.” Jared’s eyes were drilling hard into the keeper, his irises glowing red, as he clenched his fists. “You knew exactly who Sam ?
I mock whispered to Salem, “Uh-oh, Jared’s gonna lose it. Do you think he’ll do what he did to the last vampire who wanted Sam dead?” My voice was hopeful. The vampire I was referring to had infiltrated The Hollow and tried to destroy everyone in it.
Sensing that I was trying to make the woman panic by confirming a rumour that had spread throughout vampirekind, Salem played along. “You mean hit every single vulnerable spot of her body, one by one, with a high charge of electricity? Maybe. Jared did seem to enjoy the guy’s pleas for mercy before he eventually killed him with a high voltage bolt to the chest.” The rest of the squad nodded.
“Since you know who we are,” began Sam, “I think it’s only fair that we know your name.”
She cleared her throat, looking a little sick. “Marge.”
“Well, Marge, I thought we’d have a little chat.” Sam sounded pleasant and friendly, but the glow to her mercury irises made it perfectly clear that she was totally pissed. “Maybe you could explain to us why the shit that’s gone on under this roof is acceptable.”
“I-it’s not a-acceptable.”
“Very good. Gold star sticker for you. Maybe you could explain something else to me. See, I noticed a few things while you were snoozing. Ava and I went snooping, found some interesting stuff in the closet in your bedroom. We were looking for appointment books, hoping to get the names of some clients. We didn’t find them. We found something else instead. I think you know what I’m talking about.”
Marge didn’t speak, just gulped.
“We found a collection of DVDs. And not just any DVDs. Recordings. It seems that you planted secret cameras in each of the rooms. My guess is that you blackmail the clients afterwards. Am I right?”
Eyes wide with fear, Marge nodded.
“I have to hand it to you, I didn’t see that coming. Mostly because the whole thing is bad enough. I mean really, Marge, why own an establishment such as this?” The word ‘establishment’ was made to sound like a profanity.