Days of Redemption (The Firsts Book 6) (16 page)

While she tried to push herself back up, s
he knew that this wasn’t right.  Lamont had thrown her as if she was a doll.  He was only slightly taller than her and had very little weight on her.  Yet he was abnormally strong.  Her mind began to search. 
He was vampire strong.  What had he done?

“I’m going to take you up on that invitation, Judas.  I’m going to fuck you so hard, there won’t be a place left for any other man to get inside you.  I’m going to wipe away any part of that vampire you let fuck you.”

Wavering, Lauren managed to get to her feet.  The wall behind her was the only thing keeping her from falling back over.  “I think there’s something you need to tell me, asshole.  Isn’t there something you want to tell me?”

“You don’t have my confidence, I don’t think so.”

“Ummm.  You hate vampires, right?”

“Abominations.”

“So why do you have the power of one?” 

“Why would I?”  He paused and then reached for her again,
one hand tight around her throat.  “You’ll be dead soon, I guess it doesn’t matter.  In fact, I think you’re the right person to reveal this to.  Certainly, you’ll appreciate the irony.  You are actually the reason this came about.”

Lamont flexed his other hand in front of Lauren’s face.  “I’m strong now, yeah, vampire strong. 
Maybe more so.  But I’m not a vampire.  I’m not quite sure what I am, but I’ll find out eventually.  Yeah, I hate the vampires, but if you have a battle to fight, sometimes you have to do unsavory things.”

Her eyes large, Lauren watched him closely.  “And what did you do, Lamont?”

She’d never seen a more devious smile. 

He licked his
lips, his tongue caressed them as he lingered along both the top and bottom lip.  “Something that stunned even me.  Something I couldn’t have ever imagined.”   He moved his face next to Lauren’s and his tongue came out again to lick
her
lower lip as he whispered, “Something that makes me invincible.”

Lauren felt her blood freeze. 
What had he been able to do to himself that made him believe that? 
More importantly, was it true?

Suddenly he
grabbed her arm and threw her onto the bed, landing on top of her immediately.  He pinned both of her hands up against the etched Plexiglas headboard that glowed from a row of small LED lights below the bed.

“Yes, I think I will accept your offer.  Getting a nice close look, I realize you are quite a handsome woman. 
And sexually charged.  Before I kill you, I will take a ride on you.  It’s the least you can do after
you
fucked me last year!” 

Bryn felt the little cat in his head again, now familiar with her, and rode out of his torpor with her.   Once he could open his eyes and adjust to his waking state, he sat up.  His chains were already off.  He stood, feeling for his right wrist, which he knew he’d broken, but vampire healing had already done its job and it was well again.

“Thank
ya,” he said simply.

Kalia nodded.  “Vampire, your woman, she went to Lamont.”

“Son of a bitch!  When?”

“Twenty minutes now.”

“How do I find him?”

“It may be too late.”

“How the fuck do I find him!”

Shaking her head now, Kalia looked into his eyes.  “Okay, but if we do this, we do it wise.  We need weapons.”

“I don’t.”

“Says the vampire who’s been kept prisoner in a cage for two days.
  You need a weapon!  Come with me.”

Kalia almost ran from the room, Bryn following on her heels.

Nothing would stop Bryn from getting to Lauren.  Lamont would kill her…
or worse
.  He remembered the “
or worse”
these monsters had done to his friend David over a 30 year period.   “This ends today,” he whispered, not for Kalia, who was in front of him, but a promise to himself.

Outside the facility, where at least ten armed guards were visible, Park and Tamesine nodded to each other, their communication non-verbal.  Park looked at Dez, Cherise, and Katerine, backed by
Dez’s army, and nodded to let them know it was on.

Crawling from beneath their concealment under thick hedges, Park and Tamesine, hand-in-hand, approached the soldiers.  Most watched their approach, weapons at the ready, but one decided to fire on the beautiful women who walked casually towards them.  Their hands came up and a soft glow occurred, lighting the area up.  All of the guards fell instantly, unconscious.

Park’s eyes sought Tamesine’s and she smiled.  Even after the amazing things she and the damaged first blood vampire had done together, it still surprised her how powerful they were together.   She’d considered doing a series of tests to see what limitations they had, but she didn’t know if Tamesine was up to something like that yet.  What mattered now was that they could rescue their family.

Cherise led the others forward.

“It’s the room that trapped the men that I’m worried about,” she said quietly.

“I think we can blast our way out of it,” Park told her.  “But I won’t know for certain until we get in there.  Like we discussed, keep the entrance open so we have an exit if we need it. 
Tamesine, ready?”

Nodding, still silent, Tamesine took Park’s hand again and they entered the secure door that wasn’t secure to their powers.  It opened with no resistance and they walked into a solid white room with no visible openings or furnishings.  It was empty, or supposedly so.  Moments after entering, slits opened high on the walls and Park saw a rifle barrel poke out.  She pushed her mind up into the opening and heard a soft
whoof
as someone fell. 

Turning, Park saw that
Tamesine had already disabled two such shooters behind them.

They
searched each wall carefully, and when they saw no way to enter the building through that room, Tamesine walked up to the opposite wall and laid a hand on the hard smooth surface.  Seconds later, she pushed and a pre-existing opening responded, pocket doors sliding back to reveal another room filled with chains hanging on the walls and several cages large enough to hold a man.

“Wow, they’re really serious now,” Park murmured as they entered.  She was just preparing to send a message to Dez to bring her army in when she felt a pinch in her shoulder, then another, as her vision went blurry and darkness descended.

Park felt Tamesine in her mind.  An urgent push to waken brought her consciousness long before her body responded.  Tamesine spoke the language of spirit walking, not the same as words, but the message made it to her anyway.

“We’ve been drugged,” Tamesine sent to Park.  “Waken now or they will surely harm you.”

Struggling, Park finally felt her consciousness pop and her eyes opened to a field of bright white.  Once her eyes focused, she knew it was the ceiling of a room.

“Park, are you okay?”

Tamesine’s voice, quietly strong, encouraged wakefulness enough for Park to pull herself into an upright position.  The clink of chains told her they’d bound her. 

Idiots!
 
They would think to restrain the unrestrainable.

Only she couldn’t break free. 

Park looked at Tamesine, on her knees in front of her, but she was not in chains.

“Did you break loose?” 
She asked her.

Tamesine nodded.  She used her words only when she needed to do so.
 

Park pulled again and the chains resisted again. 

Tamesine was smiling now.  “They’re hard.  The material is superior to anything we’ve known before.  And they’ve weakened us with that drug.”

She grabbed Park’s chains
, tugged once, then a second time, and they cracked into pieces.

“We must go,” Tamesine said simply and stood, taking Park’s hand, pulling her up as well.

“Of course.  Do you think it’s safe to have the others come?”

Shaking her head, Tamesine pulled Park to the doorway of the room that they had been locked inside.

“I do not.  These people have a drug that puts first bloods asleep.  If I had not awakened you, it is unlikely you would have awakened for hours.  In that time, they could have killed you permanently.”

Park was inclined to agree, although she would have loved to have the back-up
, she was grateful Tamesine had been able to overcome the effects of the drug quickly.

“Then let’s find our men,” Park said.

No one was in the corridor outside the room.  They moved quietly down the hallway and passed only one guard, who Tamesine disarmed easily with a simple compulsion.  He was now sleeping in the room they’d just left.

Park’s head rose and she looked around, her eyes closed.

“Wait.  I feel Koen.  My father is near.”  A few moments later, she took Tamesine’s hand.

“This way,” she said and led the way down the hall, to a wider corridor on their left, to side-by-side elevators.

“They’re down one floor.”

Park and Tamesine did not use the elevators, but used vampire speed
to move down the adjacent stairwell.  They entered the lower floor through a heavy door just in time to see the three vampires they’d come to rescue coming towards them.

“Park,” Koen said, and picked his daughter up in his arms to hug her.  He held her close for as long as he dared and put her back from him.

“What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you guys, of course.
  What, only guys can be heroes?  Hardly.  We knew they’d taken you.”

Koen grimaced.  “Yeah, they fucking did.  But we’re free now and it’s too dangerous here.  You two should head back…”

“Father, like you don’t know better.  I’m more powerful than you, and combined with Tamesine, we are probably more powerful than anything.  We’re staying, so what do we need to do?”

Xavier was staring at Tamesine, who hadn’t looked up at anyone other than Koen.  She was uncomfortable with strangers and preferred to remain invisible.

Her quiet regression to hide behind Park didn’t work with Xavier, though.

“Hey, don’t I know you, little one?” he said suddenly to Tamesine. 

She did not respond, although she felt his eyes burning into her.  Tamesine
hated
that.  She could make him stop, but when her eyes finally lifted to him, she saw Park shake her head.

“No, Tamesine, save it for our enemy.”  Park kept a hand on
Tamesine’s arm and turned back to her father.

Koen, his eyes on Xavier with a warning to stay away from Tamesine, turned back to answer his daughter.

“We’re looking for the leader, the man called Lamont.  You’re right, he’s extremely dangerous.  No one has ever accomplished anything like this.  We have to stop him now, permanently.  He’s misguided and an asshole, but he’s smart and wealthy.  Worst of all, he thinks he’s on a mission from God to destroy the supernatural world.  That’s one of the most powerful trilogies in the world.”

“He doesn’t think of us as human, so it doesn’t affect him to hurt us
or worse.  I’m living proof of that.”  David stood behind Xavier, breathing hard.   Of everyone there, he was the one who had most reason to shut this enterprise down forever.  

His eyes went to Tamesine, quietly hiding behind Park.

She was the reason.  And although he knew she had been mentally ill, now trying desperately to get well, it bothered him to see her again.   He’d been staring at her since they came together, like Xavier, but for a far different reason.  Tamesine wouldn’t look up at him either.

“Let’s just find him and end this,” David said abruptly.

Koen led them out of the corridor.  “I have no idea where we find him, but with all of us together now, we should be unstoppable.”

FOURTEEN

His breath was fetid, the touch of his tongue
burned her skin, and she tried desperately not to notice his penis pressing against her leg. 

His body was tight and fit, muscled, probably attractive to other women who had no reason to hate or fear him.  He was naked now, and Lauren kept her hands out to her side as he la
y on top of her and plunged his tongue into her mouth.

I
can do this
, she promised herself. 
Just remember why you do this, and it will be all right
.  The reminder didn’t help.  

She was
surprised that he had an erection since she knew he hated her as much as she hated him.  It went to show that sexual excitement wasn’t always about love or attraction.  There was a violent component that excited some men and it was obvious, it excited this one.

“You’re not what I expected.  I remember you from when you worked with
Armel.  You were bone white and bone thin.  Is it the vampire?  Is that why you’re so much sexier now?  Hmmm.  I may have to keep you around to fuck when I need to.  Have you show me what he taught you.”

“Just get on with it and get it over with.”  Lauren’s tone was flat and made it clear she found him repugnant.

Lamont stood up and looked at her.

“You don’t get to do that.  You don’t get to pass judgment on me.  You betrayed a trust that involves a society that goes back over a hundred years.  You’re mine now.  If I want to fuck you, I will, and you’ll smile through the whole thing.  You’re going to wrap that vapid tongue
around my cock and suck me dry like I’m sure you’ve done for that vampire.  And you’re going to lick your lips and ask to do it again.”

Eyes closed, Lauren did not react. 
A sudden sharp slap on her face made her eyes fly open.  He slapped her again, hard enough to draw tears.

“Smile, whore.
  No one is going to rescue you now.”

It took several moments for Lauren to force the smile he commanded from her
, the muscles around her mouth so tight, they hurt.

Lamont slid off of the bed and stood next to it.

“Suck me,” he said.

Lauren felt herself gag.  The very idea made her stomach roll and she was pretty sure she would throw up if she had to take him into her mouth.

“Get on the floor where you belong, and swallow me.”

Oh, God, why didn’t he just kill her?

Forcing her body to obey her
need to move, Lauren nearly fell off of the bed.  She would bite him, she knew it because she was certain she couldn’t do anything else.  He’d kill her then.

But would
she have bought enough time for Bryn and Kalia to help the other residents get out of there? 

Lauren looked up at Lamont, his expression radiant, hands on his hips, his cock full and pointing right at her lips.  Every muscle in her body locked and she couldn’t make herself move closer and do what he demanded.

“Fuck this,” he said, and grabbed her hair to force her to him.

Immediately her
self-protective instincts kicked in and she grabbed his balls and squeezed.   He bucked and fell backward as she shoved herself to her feet and searched for anything she could use for a weapon.

Near the computer she saw something flat and shiny.   Was that a knife?
  On wobbly legs, she made her way over and grabbed it.  About eight inches long, a sharp steel blade gleamed in her hand.  A chance, anyway, of surviving this.  Just this moment she’d discovered that while she was ready to let him kill her if she had to, she wasn’t ready to let him abuse her.   Turning to face him, she saw him stand.  It was like staring into the face of the devil.  This time, she knew.  He was going to kill her.

Lamont
was on her in seconds, tore the knife out of her hands and threw her across the room for the second time.  This time, her head struck the wall hard enough to nearly lose consciousness.  

He
started towards her, but slowly.  “I am going to tear your arms out of the sockets.  Then I am going to drive into you hard enough to break you.  You are going to feel every inch of me as I pile-drive into your pussy and empty myself inside of you.  Afterward, I’ll chain you in a cage so you can feel the pain and relive every moment.  You thought I was going to kill you for that, didn’t you?   That is not good enough.”

Pushing against the wall, Lauren tried to sit up.  “What is wrong with you?  How can you hate so much?  Where do you come from that you think
it’s okay to hurt people like this?”

“I am a god to you.  My family has owned half this world for centuries.  We rule the money, the governments of many nations, and the lives of a lot of people.  But these supernatural creatures, especially the vampires, they don’t belong here.”

Something struck Lauren.  “You don’t just hate them…you’re jealous.  Of the vampires, you’re jealous.  They’re perfect.  Immortal, young forever, wealthy, powerful, they can literally control people, and they are sexy as hell.  You can’t stand that they are superior to you.  That’s why you study them.  You want to find a way to get those abilities without converting.  You sick bastard, you’ll never pull it off.”

Lamont spat on the floor.
  “Bullshit!  Too late!” 

Terror seized Lauren. 
What did he mean?

With the same toothy, victory smile he’d given her earlier, he squatted down in front of Lauren’s broken body.

“Bull.  Shit.  I already have them.”

A chime interrupted and Lamont walked back to the computer station and touched a button.

“What!”

“Sir, the big vampires.
  Um, sir, they’re gone.”

“Fuck me!”  Lamont barked.  “Make sure everyone is searching for them.  And make sure they all have rifles with serum vials, or it’s over before it starts.”

He slammed his hand down on the intercom button and turned to Lauren.

“Time to go.”

Blood was dripping from Lauren’s lips as she wiped them with the back of her hand.  “Oh.  Sure, it’s been nice, have a good trip.”

“Funny.  You’re going with me. 
Hostage, chew toy.  Whatever I need.  Get up.”

“Can’t.
  I think you broke something.”

“You better hope you can sta
nd because you don’t want me to drag you.   I won’t worry about how easily your human skull will crack.”

“Just get out of here before the vampires arrive.  They’ll kill you if they find you.”

“They won’t.  Get. Up.”

Lauren knew she had two options at that moment.  Get on her feet, as commanded, or he would kill her right there.  There wasn’t a chance he would leave her alive.

So she pushed herself up onto her feet.  Yeah, something was broken in her right arm, which wouldn’t impede her, and something was broken in her left foot, which would.  Lauren clinched her teeth as she tried to walk to follow Lamont from the room.  There was no chance she could run from him now, he’d just catch her and kill her, so she limped after him as quickly as she could.

Glaring at her,
frustrated, anger streamed from him, and he turned. He threw her over his shoulder with all the gentleness of a crocodile capturing its dinner.

“Humans are so fucking fragile!  No wonder those vampires use us for cannon fodder.”

It wouldn’t help if she pointed out that it was the humans who were doing that with the supernaturals right now.  Or that he sounded a great deal like someone who thought he was
beyond
human.  Now, with her ass in the air and arms hanging limp down his back, once again she wished for a weapon.  Only this time she was ready to plunge a knife deep into him with no hesitation.

It struck her, though, that he’d referred to himself as
invincible
, and that a knife might not hurt him now at all.  He was altered, that was obvious.  Vampire strength explained how he could do the things he’d done this past hour.  Like now, toting her body, which was anything but small and lightweight, as if she were a child.

He wasn’t going through
conversion, that much she knew.  And she was fairly certain he wouldn’t have ever risked that anyway, his hatred of the vampire race was so venomous.

But he’d done
something
.  Either way, Lauren was on her way out of here, and so was he, so she felt certain that at least the vampires could protect these people and destroy this place. 

It was
all worth it.  Redemption achieved, she would die justified in her deeds.  Her life would have had meaning in the end.  There was a peace to be found with that, she thought, hanging limp over his shoulder as he climbed stairs to the top level of the building.

He cracked open a heav
y door with a loud metallic screech and Lauren felt cool air on her skin.  From her position, she could see that they were on the roof of the building.  A helicopter sat about thirty feet away, its propellers spinning.  

Lamont was ste
ps from the chopper, moments from departure.  This was it.  Lauren kept her eyes on the concrete under their feet as Lamont walked quickly straight to the helicopter.

“Lamont!”

Grabbing his butt to push herself up as far as she could, Lauren threw her head back. 
Bryn?  Bryn was
here?

Lamont stopped and she felt her body drop hard onto the concrete.  She scrambled upright and pushed herself away from him.  Her eyes went immediately to the door that was still open, Kalia holding it wide, Bryn advancing on Lamont.

God, he was beautiful! 
The airfoil created by the helicopter’s propellers was blowing his hair wildly around his head, anger driving him forward.

“Bryn, be careful. He’s stronger than human now!”  Lauren warned him.

Bryn let himself be distracted for a tenth of a second.  “Lassie,” he said gently, then immediately returned his attention to Lamont.

“I’m
gonna kill ya, ya know that,” he told Lamont.

Grinning, Lamont stood easily, did not even step back, although he had no weapon and an oversized, pissed
-off vampire was nearly on him.

Lauren was terrified for Bryn.

As Bryn reached for Lamont, Lamont seized him by the shoulder and shoved.  Bryn flew across the roof of the building to within inches of the edge.  If he hadn’t been lucky enough to grab a roof vent, he would have gone over.

Lamont laughed out loud. 
“Yeah.  I am a fucking God.  I can even take a vampire now.”   He looked down at Lauren, who was still sprawled awkwardly at his feet, trying to crawl backwards away from him.  “None of you can stop me now.”

He grabbed for one of Lauren’s feet, but she kicked at his hand violently and pushed herself as hard as she could.

Kalia had let the door go and headed for Lamont, but she, too, was flung backwards, airborne this time, and smashed into the air conditioning unit on the other side of the roof.

“Enough of this shit!  Get over here, bitch!”

Lauren knew he had her, there was nowhere to go.

Once again, the door flung open and she wrenched her neck to see who else had come onto the room.  Her jaw dropped.

Two of the biggest vampires she’d ever known, and another huge one she did not know, accompanied Park and Tamesine, the most powerful first blood vampires Lauren had ever heard of, stood facing Lamont. 

Bryn had gotten back up and joined them. 

It was over.  There was no way Lamont could overcome a force this great. 

Lauren let her muscles relax and just dropped back against an air intake hood.

Thank God it was over! 

Park looked at Lauren lying broken on the ground and gave her a reassuring smile.

Then it happened.  Something so bizarre, no one on that roof could believe it. 

Bryn had headed to Lamont using the usual vampire speed but stood frozen in place, unable to move his arms or legs.  First bloods could do that to regular vampires, but no one on that roof would have done so.

His eyes shifted.  “Who’s done this?”

David began to walk to him. 
“No one.  What the hell?”

Halfway to Bryn, David froze.

Koen moved to intercept Lamont, then stopped in his tracks.

Lauren’s eyes moved straight to the women and the remaining vampire,
who were shocked, and also unable to move. 

Lamont clapped his hands together, laughing riotously.

“My word!  I didn’t think this was possible.  I have beaten you,
all
of you!  I would take the time to kill you, but I don’t know how long I can keep you frozen.  Another day, vampires, now that I know I can use this power!  This next year will be
very
interesting!”