He wasn’t sure how late it was when the sound of the door stirred him back into consciousness. A vampire he’d never seen slunk into the room. It undid the gag from his mouth and offered him a bottle of water. As much as James wanted to tell the vampire where he could shove that bottle, his thirst was overpowering and the closeness of the bottle only made it worse. “Slowly,” the vampire demanded but James ignored him and drank greedily from the bottle.
James didn’t even manage to finish the bottle when he had to turn his head and throw up all the water he had drank. The vampire cursed in a language James didn’t know. “Stupid lycan, drink slowly or I won’t give you any at all,” he demanded, bringing the bottle back to James. Despite vomiting the water, it had taken the edge off in his thirst allowing him to actually follow the vampire’s advice and take generous sips.
When the James had drunk nearly two whole bottles, the vampire re-gagged him, despite James’s complaints and kneeled to his left, where he hadn’t thrown up, and James winced as the leech sunk its fangs into James’s arm. He hated how powerless he felt against the vampires. They could drain him right now if they wanted and there was nothing he could do to stop them.
When the vampire finally let go of his arm once again, James rested his head on his chest with exhaustion. The vampire said something to him, but he was on the edge of consciousness and couldn’t understand what was being said. He thought of Lily again and hoped she was alright. She had to stay in control. If she was in control, then she was safe. Stay strong Lily, he pleaded silently. Please stay strong and with that he slipped into unconsciousness again.
James slowly came back to consciousness. He lifted his head slowly and looked around the room. It was still exactly the same as the last time. It was impossible to know what time of day it was or how much time had passed since he had been taken. He tried to shift his position, but the bindings were so tight if he flinched, he’d burn himself. Well, he was burned pretty badly as it was.
His ankles he didn’t think were so bad since his pants acted as somewhat of a buffer for the silver but his wrists, his wrists were really burned. They were burned raw and bloody. His arms were caked with old and new blood. Despite all this he had to try and change his position. His joint and body ached from sitting in the same position for so long. Also, his bladder was really, really full.
James wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a small group of humans, about five, entered the room. “Morning dog breath,” an all too familiar voice said as a greeting. Coming from behind the big bulky men in front of her, Jessie Hart stood before him with a smirk on her face.
“So this is it, is it? Working for the leech now?” He growled at her, keeping his anger at her betrayal in check. As much as he wanted to try and break free so he could rip off her ugly face, James knew the silver kept him trapped.
She ignored his jibe at her and said, “We’re going to let you get up and go to the bathroom drink but you have to behave James and let me put this silver collar on you without a fight or I’ll let you rot in your own piss, got it?” She took something from one of the men to her side.
“Yeah, I got it,” James sneered at her, hoping that since she was only with humans, it wasn’t the Aequivalere that were betraying Lily but just Jessie. Cautiously she approached him and snapped the collar in place. Inside was lined with a soft material so it, at least, wasn’t burning him. “But don’t think that I won’t kill you when the time comes… if Lily doesn’t kill you first,” he warned her.
She stood and smiled at him. “Lily will be Silvano’s when this is finished. Her mental state is very fragile with the loss of her pup and her mate. Silvano is going to break her and remake her into what he needs her to be. I’ll be safe from her, you, and everything else,” she said smugly. James gave her his best, crazed smile and simply laughed at her. The vampire king wouldn’t break Lily before she broke him. James was sure of it.
Jessie did seem a little taken aback by him but nodded to the others to undo his restraints. As James stood the humans scattered like roaches, except Jessie, their fear stinking up the room. He sighed as he stood up stiffly, his body rejoicing the new movement. He looked at his wrists. They were a mess and he had a sliver of fear that he might get some silver in his blood. As they led him to the door, he said, “Can I get someone to wrap up my wrists I am no good to the leech with silver poisoning.”
“This isn’t a hotel dog,” Jessie snapped, but he caught the worried glance she gave his wrists. They took him out of the room and his suspicions had been right, he was underground. In a secret room no less, hidden behind a tall shelf of wine bottles. The whole cellar was full of them and they looked like they’d been there a while. They guided him upstairs and James had to stop and shield his eyes from the bright sunlight.
It took him several minutes before he could actually open his eyes enough to see somewhat. “Let’s go,” Jessie demanded, pushing him and he growled back at her. They walked through the obscenely large kitchen and through the expensive home. Where the hell was he? There were only a few homes like this in the area and only two were unowned and vacant. They had already been checked for vampires then he remembered Tony had just taken Jessie’s word that they’d been searched.
Having used the bathroom and his wrists cleaned and wrapped, they herded him back to the secret room. Deciding time to play nice was over despite the collar, James pushed over one of the humans and tried to shove another when he felt something hit him and before he could blink electricity shot through him. The current paralyzed him with intense pain till he collapsed onto the ground.
When it stopped, he still couldn’t move and his mind was flooded with relief that it was over. Jessie kneeled in front of him, showing him something that looked like a funky gun. “I really do love Tasers. They work on just about everything,” she said with a self-satisfied smirk. “I can’t blame you for trying James. I’d be disappointed if you didn’t. Only an idiot wouldn’t try to escape at least once,” she said then stood. “Get him in there!”
James growled at them but felt too weak to do much of anything else. He sighed, defeat filling him as he was restrained back in the chair and still had the collar around his neck. He had to get out of here. He had to get to Lily. He couldn’t let them break her. James’s head fell to his chest and sleep slowly took him again. The sound of the door woke him like a hungry looking vampire slide in. He licked his lips at the sight of James and James shuddered with disgust.
The vampire blew him a kiss and went to sit on his lap when another came in. “Hands off Luciano, the king needs him. The hybrid has been spotted coming this way and King Silvano wants her mate prepared,” the vampire told him.
Luciano seemed to pout at this news. “Only a little, Bianca said he was delicious,” he begged but thankfully James watch the other refuses persistently and walked over to James clapping him in thick silvered chains before releasing the restraints.
“Come lycan, time to watch your mate crumble under the power of my master and king. From what I’ve heard she’s halfway there already,” the vampire told him, forcing him up and out of the chair. The amount of silver on him had him so weak he could hardly walk right. He gave the vampire a growl while silently praying that they were wrong about Lily.
The last thing she remembered was going with Tony and several of the enforcers to find the children. One of Keon’s guys had caught their scent. The trail had led them to Bianca with three other vampires in that old shack where Xavier had killed Kyle, a beastly werewolf like James and her. She groaned and sat up.
She felt as if an eighteen wheeler hand ran over her then backed up only to run over her again. “Lily… is that you,” she heard Tony ask and Lily looked at him, trying to figure out why he’d ask her something like that.
“Is it me? Of course, it’s me, who the hell would I be if not?” She shot back, rubbing her neck. She glanced out of the window and noticed for the first time that it was day. “What time is it? What the hell happened Tony,” Lily asked swinging her legs over the side of the bed, feeling panicked. Bianca? The children? They had to find them. Tony jerked a little as she moved, looking at her as if she was some kind of cornered animal.
“You mean you don’t remember anything, anything at all,” he asked, watching her warily. Lily was so angry when they found Bianca and demanded to know where James and the children were but the vampire simply gloated about how she couldn’t wait to get her hands on the children. Children’s blood was the best she had said. There is nothing like the taste of innocent youth, but James’ blood was a good second, the vampire claimed, licking her lips. Lily didn’t think she had ever been so angry in her life. She tried to remember what happened after that but it all was really fuzzy.
“Well, I remember finding Bianca with the vampires… then it’s all kind of confusing after that,” she admitted and the look of surprise on his face worried her. “What is it, Tony? What’s wrong? What happened?”