Waking up is a literal pain. Unless the first blood is already hitting your veins, the state of dormancy weakens us. Normally when I wake up, Chad has my bag of blood waiting for me somewhere. That morning draught is more than a meal; it is liquid command. That breakfast is better than any energy drink. Even though fresh blood from an active human is by far the best, coma blood is good, and reheated does the trick. It is a concentrated rush, like high-grade steroids and Red Bull mixed with a light dusting of crystal meth. It knocks any cobwebs out that may be left over from sleeping.
It works extra well during the summer. Those long summer days when we sleep for sixteen hours sometimes. That is why we live in the middle of this giant building. There is no possibility of sunlight finding its way in; the structure is a perfect, fortified vault. Even if we just read or even turn on a TV for some local news, that is far better than wasting our time in a coffin wide awake, just waiting for the toxic energy of the sun to pass so it can go and pester vampires in another land somewhere.
Waking up today is a lot like waking up and sticking around in a box that barely has enough space for another person. I would rather face that morning than go through with what I might have to do if this witch chooses to keep quiet.
Chad is waiting outside the guest room where he has my blood. It does seem that one of our drones was able to get a name out of our little houseguest. Nevaeh. She must definitely be under thirty-five years old. That was about the time that every little girl born was named that. It is a nice name at first until everyone you start to meet all has the same name. I put my game face on and enter the room. Her eyes are raw, sunk deep into bruised sockets, and her skin is pale, drawn tight over the bone. She looks wrung out, starved of rest, like a prisoner already beaten.
My guess is she has never been forced to stay awake this long after throwing a tantrum.
I use the remote for the bed she is in to raise the top half of her body so she is able to make eye contact with me. Any makeup she had on was washed away long ago. At the moment, she looks more like fifty years old. The corners of her mouth are falling to either side of her chin. Her hair looks stringy and wet from hormone level swings from exhaustion and lack of sleep.
I hold her head straight as her brain tries to force her into sleep. "Hey, Nev? Nev, can you hear me?"
I reach down to the bottom of the bed where her feet are and grab hold of her big toe. "My boys tell me that you still want to keep all the little secrets that you have locked away in that head of yours. Now I can pull them out, but I might end up looking like you, and you can see my face, correct? Do you really think that I want to do THAT to a face like this?"
Her head tries to bob out as I talk to her. "Enough of this petulant behavior."
With a quick tug of my finger, I dislocate her big toe. Her eyes pop open wide, and she lets out a scream.
"Yaaauh, ha. Like a shot of adrenaline right to the heart, is it not? Then it all goes down to the toe, and all you feel is your own heartbeat in your foot. Bump-BUMP bump-BUMP."
I reach for her ankle on her left foot, opposite the refugee toe. "Nev?"
Her wide eyes look at me slowly as her bottom lip shakes with fear and pain. "Nev, we can be done if you like. All you have to do is tell me the name of the old woman and about the necklace she had."
"Muup. . . buup. . . unn. . ." Sounds just fall out of her.
"Nev, give me her name, Nev. You do not want to go home on crutches, do you, Nev?" I do my best to paint a picture of the reality I am offering if I do not get what I need. "You have five seconds, Nev. Five seconds and your left ankle will make you forget all about your right toe, Nev. 5... 4... 3... 2..."
I give her far longer than I had promised. "...1 ok, Nev."
Holding her ankle with two fingers in my left hand, I quickly turn my wrist counterclockwise. I feel at least three bones snap clean in her ankle.
As she lets out a scream, she begins to cough as bile begins to rise from the pain in her foot. "Guu... Ugg..." She takes a huge breath and lets out a scream that could shatter brick.
"Nev dear, it will only get worse for you from here," I state as clearly and plainly as I can. "We have pain meds we can give you after this is over, Nev. Give me a name."
A surge of courage finds its way up from the fight-or-flight response she has, and her eyes narrow in on me. "Go fuck yourself!" She seems to be her old self again.
With an easy, lightning-fast backhand of my left hand across her knee, I feel her kneecap shatter into three. She doubles over in pain and starts to cry.
"I will be back in one hour. We can keep going, Nev, or you can just go home. The choice is completely up to you."
She spits in my direction. At this distance, she does not really make it, but I do feel a mist of saliva on my face. I walk out and close the door. I tell Chad to stop giving her water until I return.
I head to the library. Kara is already posted up, lost in a sea of leather and cracked spines. I wonder if she sets an alarm clock just so she can wake up before me. As I enter, she sits in front of her books, glowing as if the sun had not set. I kiss her on the cheek and ask her if she has eaten yet this morning. She shakes her head no.
"Stay here. I will find Chad and make sure he brings something up to you." She smiles at me and keeps going through her books. I also tell her, "Oh, I am close to getting our witch nut to crack. Should only be a little while longer."
I head back down and tell Chad to make sure that Kara eats something. She is no good if she does not eat, especially to herself.
I walk across the way and turn into the gym to find Jade and Sonya sparring. I say to them, "Good morrow girls."
They pause for a second and return to a fight stance. Jade holds up her hand to Sonya and looks over at me. "HEY, you know if Chad don't want to take his turn picking that witch bitch apart, I fucking do! I was there too, daddy, and your hand feels cold when you horde all the head crack'en."
She has such a sweet way with her violence. I look down at her and say, "Be ready in about forty-five minutes or so. You can go in with me, and anything I need done, you can be my hammer of Thor."
She gets a big smile and a hitch in her step. They return to beating on each other as I leave the room. I head over to the funeral home just to look everything over. I have had the place closed down since all this witch nonsense started.
When I get back home, I see Jade waiting by Chad. I ask her, "You ready, my dear?"
"I ain't ever gonna be more ready." I feel the energy flow off her like a prizefighter going for the title.
Nevaeh seems to have no issue with keeping her eyes open anymore. "Are we going to start on the top half this time, or are you ready to give me what I want?" She acts as if I am a father about to punish her for something she did not do. I give her twenty seconds or so to think it over.
"Alright, baby doll, first index knuckle."
Jade skips the entire three-foot gap. Quick as lightning, she pops her finger on her right hand back so the nail is touching her second knuckle. She lets out another scream like she did last time. I allow a few seconds to go by so she can feel the full weight of what was done to her.
"You do know I am a vampire, correct?" She nods her head reluctantly. "So you are aware that time is not the same to me as it is to you? What we have been doing here has been, what, a day and a half for you? To me, it felt like ten or fifteen minutes. I can keep this up for years at a time if I want to. I can dislocate and break every single bone you have. When I get to the end of THAT, I can start cutting things off and sending them to family and friends so they will know that you will not be around much longer. I know my dogs will be happy. Not my friends, my actual dogs that I have just outside the house."
I see all the blood drain out of her face. "Are we ready to work on the left thumb now."
You see, I alternate left to right. If you hit too close to the same spot you just injured, there is a possibility that one pain can mask another, so I have a system where that does not happen.
"Jade, head to her left side, please, and take her thumb in your hand."
"Wait!!" She says, exhausted. "The stone around the woman's neck… It was sent to our coven from somewhere near… Somewhere near Kailash Temple. No name on the package that I saw, only a postmark. No idea who it was from. The woman who wore it, she calls herself, Lady Sohona. I figured it just sounded cool."
She rolls over, disgusted with herself, as Jade releases her hand.
I put my arm around Jade and walk her out where Chad is standing once again. "You did good in there, kid. I am very proud of you." She spins around to head down to the club to check on her security team, her wonderful red hair bouncing back and forth as she leaves.
I look at Chad. "She finally gave us something useful, not just a headache. The thing is, I have more questions NOW than when I started this whole thing. Can you get our guest here some food and water, make sure she gets patched up and give her some pain meds as soon as she eats something."
Chad nods his head and walks away.
I make my way upstairs to where Kara has been posted up for the last few days or so. "Hey babe, I got some information for you."
She looks at me with a question on her face. "Our little house guest finally gave us something useful, not just a headache. The stone around her neck was sent from a place near Kailash Temple. The old woman goes by the name of Lady Sohona. If that helps you zero in on anything, let me know as soon as you can."
She looks at me as I begin to head out. "Are you leaving again?" she asks.
"Yes, I am. I left Sera at the loft, and I should go check to see if she is still there." I tell her.
"Make sure you have your phone. With this new info, it should be soon enough I will be calling you," she says.
"Will do, babe. I will be back soon," I say. She tosses me a look like I might let her down.
I make my way to the car and head over to the loft. When I arrive, I see that Sera has not left yet. My drone tells me that she has had the TV on for noise, but she has been stressed and walking circles in the loft. I tell the drone to head back to the Lair and send a fresh drone in its place. I need a little time to talk with Sera and help her get herself together.
I get up to the loft to find Sera looking out the window into middle-distance. She is so lost in her head she does not hear my entrance. "Sera?" I begin to say.
She looked as if she was hit with a cattle prod. "You have to get out of your head, kid. You are going to stress your heart, and I do not want to find your body in my loft one day," I say, attempting to lighten the mood.
"Where do I go from here?" she says. "I never should have gone back to Kyle in the first place. After the fight we had, I left him in my mind, but my body is confused on what to do. I have repetition burned into my habits. I keep moving like I should go home, but when I start to move, I feel like I am going to throw up. I can't live like this."
"So you do know you can not keep going like this. Like I said before, you are welcome to stay here as long as you like. Take a second to figure out what you need to do for you." I get the feeling she thinks I am just being nice.
"Tell you what, when I get back to the club, I will send two guys over to Kyle's place and get your things. Clothes, files for work, any bathroom things you need from there. Then they can bring it all back here. That will make this place feel more like home, until you get everything square. Sound good?"
A smile crossed her face, and her shoulders dropped a mile, and she threw her arms around me. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I promise I will not get in your way. I will be gone before you know it."
"Do not push yourself out too fast. You are only going to stress yourself out again. Take your time, leave when you are ready. One of my men will be back soon to cover the door and get anything you require. You just hang tight. I have to get to work. You call me if you need anything at all."
The night's routine is clockwork, and everything in my territory is holding solid. So, I head to the homestead and see what the status is on the witch at this moment. Chad should have everything just about wrapped up by now, I think.
As I see him, and confirm that things are going as planned. He has a shot of morphine in his hand and was about to give her the last of the meds she should need. I ask how she is doing, not that I am expecting an honest answer from her, or even really care. I mentally and physically broke her. She feels humiliated in front of me. In her mind, she is sent right back to that moment when she sees my face. That is one high point within this entire ordeal.
As I wrap up with Nevaeh, underground one floor as we are, I hear a faint explosion off in the distance. It is a dull, heavy thud that vibrates even through the bedrock. Moments later, the silence is shredded by sirens. A parade of ambulance, fire, and police scream their way down our little slice of heaven. This cannot be good. A sinking feeling hits me. Whatever caused that noise—whoever was part of it—I am meant to be involved.
"Chad, is she tended to now? Get two drones and put them on her door. You and I need to take a little ride. Circle the town and see what the hell we can see." I want my eyes open no matter what I see.
After I find out what happened, I have a feeling there is only one group of nasty bastards I will have to pay a visit to. The only group in town that have the means and the will to make an explosion big enough for a vampire to feel it across the entire city. The resulting chaos ensures our destination: the North side. We will end up on the front door to Osavaia Ullasurud, Leader of the Dark Elves.