The Bite That Binds Part 14

"You remember I took Janine's artificial baby b.u.mp after Jude had killed her, right? You never wondered why I wanted it?"

Oh s.h.i.+t.

CHAPTER NINE.

(Sam) I would have thought that seeing a pregnant woman stumbling out of a supermarket would get a reaction out of people. Most hadn't even noticed, wrapped up in conversations or using their mobile phones. Out of those that did notice, only one person had asked if I was okay. Some had looked at others, trying to judge if they would act or thought it necessary to. It seemed it was that whole bystander apathy thing.

It was as I reached the parking lot that a vehicle pulled up beside me. One of the tinted windows of the grey Volvo wound down just enough to show me a concerned face. This sure looked like our Wendy if that was even her real name, of course. Approximately ten minutes ago, Jared had sent a response from Leon's phone; giving a description of me as the pregnant woman who had been drugged.

"Is everything all right, hon?"

I continued to stagger at a slow pace as I slurred, "F-fine." It was at times like this that I wished I'd been paying a little attention in drama cla.s.s.

"You look like you need to see a doctor."

"Really, I'm fine," I slurred again.

"You're not fine, hon. Come on, jump in, I'll take you to the hospital."

"But my car-"

"You can't drive like that. You're close to pa.s.sing out. It's important you get to a hospital fast...as long as you don't mind listening to a two year old recite his ABCs all the way there," she added with a laugh. Yes, Wendy had brought along a toddler to look unsuspicious. I wondered if he was her child or she'd borrowed him like the weirdo that she was.

Once the familiar mush by my feet had wriggled through the cracks of the rear door and was inside the vehicle, I said, "Okay, thanks." For show, I fumbled and stumbled as I got into the Volvo.

"Don't worry about anything, hon. You just rest. I'll get you help."

If I'd been adhering to Jared's proposal, I would simply have waited patiently until he and the rest of the squad stopped the vehicle. But as my own plan had been more popular more popular to everyone but Jared I would be continuing the I'm in agony and disorientated' act, allowing her to lead me and the others right to the Medics.

Jared had insisted that the Deliverer would have easily told us their whereabouts. After a bit of torture, she most likely would have done. But that would have taken time. We couldn't risk the Medics deciding to leave as this was our best chance at getting to them. I knew that Jared was still p.i.s.sed, but he had been slightly placated by my keeping Denny with me.

During the entire journey, I was sure to moan in pain, and to appear as if I was drifting in and out of consciousness. Instead of taking us to an isolated spot, as I would have expected, Wendy took us deeper into the city. Once we reached a row of industrial warehouses, she stopped the car. She paid me no attention whatsoever as she took her mobile phone from her purse and dialled a number. "Outside" was all she said.

Moments later, there was a loud cras.h.i.+ng sound as one of the yellow roller doors opened. Three people, all in scrubs, came das.h.i.+ng out with a flatbed trolley. Wendy lit a cigarette and watched with a bored expression as they all humans, I detected placed me on the bed and wheeled me toward the building. Shame I wouldn't get to see her face when Denny materialised in front of her.

Thankfully, the little boy in the backseat was asleep. As instructed, Denny and Chico would immediately hand the little boy over to the police.

I was surprised by the interior of the warehouse. The large, bare s.p.a.ce was much cleaner than I'd been expecting. In the far corner was a large white lorry that, at first glance, seemed like an average heavy goods vehicle. It was actually a mobile hospital.

The three humans two men, one woman lifted the bed into the vehicle with a practiced ease that made my blood boil. Just how many women had they done this to? Just how many bodies hadn't yet been discovered?

They took me past a supply station, a small lab, and a curtained area that contained a baby incubator and cot. Finally, they halted and I saw that we were in an operating suite. They transferred me from the trolley to a standard hospital bed, arranging my body in the position that they wanted.

The dark-skinned male took a place at the bottom of the bed. "Right, let's get this over with." He didn't sound happy to be doing it. At least he had a conscience, even if it was tiny.

The woman, having taken a place on my left while the other male was at my right, rolled up my sweater, and gasped at the sight of the Empathy Belly Pregnancy Stimulator.

Before any of them could react, I bolted upright and backhanded the Medics on either side of me, sending them cras.h.i.+ng to the floor. In a blink, I was then behind the dark-skinned male, holding one of the scalpels to his throat. "Surprise," I drawled. "Bet you never seen that coming, eh? s.h.i.+t yourself?"

"I d-don't understand what th-this is a-about," he stammered. "I sw-swear I haven't t-told anyone anything." So he thought I was one of his employers, most likely based on me being different'...which meant he had detected that something was different' about them.

"I'm not one of your employers, but I am like them. In fact, this lot are just like them as well," I added as Jared, the squad, and Jude entered the suite.

The female Medic took one of the scalpels and hurled it at them. It hit Salem in the chest, who merely peered down at it in bemus.e.m.e.nt. Rolling his eyes, he tugged it out and slung it on the floor. I had to give her credit for trying to fight back.

"Sandra, no!" chastised the human I was restraining. "Just cooperate. You too, Mitch," he told the other male Medic who was now being held by Reuben.

Salem tangled his hand in Sandra's hair and dragged her to him, pinning her wrists behind her back with one hand. Neither she nor Mitch struggled.

Jared came to stand in front of the dark male, shooting me a brief glance. Nice work, baby.

See, I'm not helpless just because my gifts are on the blink.

I can see that. Although there was amus.e.m.e.nt and affection in his tone, his expression was hard as stone. "What's your name?"

"Erik."

"Well, Erik, I'll get straight to the point. I have a few questions for you." Jared held up his hand, showing the human the trickles of electricity that were playing around his fingertips. "Answer them correctly and I won't have any reason to demonstrate just exactly how much this will hurt. Play dumb and, well...we'll find out if you can hit the high notes. Are we clear?"

Erik, stinking of fear, whined, "If I tell you anything, they'll kill me."

"Ah, but if you don't tell me anything, I'll kill you. That's if the beautiful female behind you restrains herself long enough to let me. I should probably point out that she has homicidal tendencies. Oh, and you may have noticed the totally p.i.s.sed off woman at the other end of the suite, glaring at you. She had her baby taken from her."

"Is this the one that cut you open?" I asked Jude. She nodded, looking fiercer than I'd ever seen her.

Jared scratched his head, giving Erik a falsely sympathetic smile. "Yeah, I think it's safe to say that you're not leaving this warehouse alive. I won't lie to you about that. Denying Jude her vengeance isn't something I'm prepared to do. But I'm prepared to skip the torture' part of the interrogation if you answer me honestly and quickly. Think you can do that?"

Startling all of us, Erik abruptly leaned into the scalpel and sharply twisted his head, slitting his own throat. Releasing the gargling human, I jerked back.

Butch sighed. "I guess he didn't think he could."

Max c.o.c.ked his head. "If he'd rather die than talk, they had to have scared him even worse than we have."

Jared shrugged one shoulder. "No matter. We have two others here who can help us with our enquiries." At a leisurely pace, he strolled over to Mitch. "I'm hoping that you'll be more cooperative."

"He looks like a helpful person," I said, as I joined Jared.

"He does, doesn't he?"

The words burst out of Mitch. "I don't remember anything." When Jared went to move, he shouted, "It's true, it's true! They did something to me."

Jared crossed his arms over his chest. "Explain."

"I can't, not all of it, because I don't remember. I just know that they put some kind of block on my memories."

"A block?"

"A block, or they erased them or something. They did the same to Sandra. The only one of us who really knew anything was Erik, but that was because he'd saw stuff that he wasn't supposed to see. He would never tell me any of it. He said it was safer for me that way." His expression was poignant as he looked down at the body of his ex-colleague.

I turned to Jared. "Is that possible?"

"Yes. It's a little like Jude's gift, only much stronger. Whereas Jude can only delete last twenty minutes of memory, these people can choose which memories they want to delete and there is no time limit."

"So we have nothing," said Jude through her teeth.

"Not necessarily," interjected Stuart. "See, the brain is made up of so many compartments that it would be impossible to completely erase a memory. It's a little like a computer. When you delete things, it simply goes into the recycle bin, so it's more like the vampire suppressed his memories. One memory can trigger another to resurface."

I nodded. "Okay. So how do we get to those memories?"

"We use Antonio's top interrogator, Ryder," announced Jared. "He can do a mind swipe. Basically, he has a psychic hand. He uses it to sift and browse through what's there. If there is anything at all left of those memories, he'll find it."

Cool gift, but... "If he's that good, why doesn't Antonio send him on a.s.signments? It would be a h.e.l.l of a lot easier to get answers if we had someone like him with us."

"Ryder never leaves The Hollow. He's only five months old, so he's not in control of his bloodl.u.s.t yet. Antonio keeps him isolated, just as he would with any newborn."

"We'll have the Deliverer, too," David reminded us. "She might know stuff."

"Then let's get these humans to The Hollow." When Jude stepped forward, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng with anger, I gave her a pointed look. "Jude, you will get your vengeance, I promise you. But we need Ryder to sweep through their memories first. We need what info they have so we can find out what they know. Once we have it, they're all yours. Okay?"

Her nod was reluctant, and I couldn't blame her for being so impatient.

"There's something I want to know first." Jared turned back to the male Medic. "What were you going to do with the baby once you had it? Is there someone waiting for it right now? Bear in mind that I'll know if you're lying to me."

"No one's waiting. We can't do it at a moment's notice, so we were always given a week to get a baby. Once we had one and we were confident it would survive the Caesarean, Erik would send a message on his cell phone and then they'd message him with a location for him to drive to with the baby. He never took me or Sandra with him."

"Good," I said. "No one will suspect anything if this lot doesn't show up with a baby today. When is the latest they'll expect to be contacted?"

"In four days."

"Think Ryder will be done within four days?" I asked Jared.

"Let's hope so." Jared sighed. "This place needs cleaning up. We don't want human forensics finding Salem's blood or any traces of us. It would probably be easier to just teleport it to the ocean or something. First, I want Harvey, Max, and Damien to search the vehicle. Look for any files or paperwork or anything that might even seem important. If I'm tied up, one of Antonio's guards will teleport in and pick you guys up in a couple of hours."

I looked at Salem, who was still holding Sandra, and at Reuben, who was still restraining Mark. "When we get back, take them straight to the containment cells. Make sure they're put in separate ones. Ask Denny to do the same with Weird Wendy."

Once Jared had teleported everyone, with the exception of Harvey, Damien, and Max, back to The Hollow, he and I made a quick stop at our apartment.

"I need to get this Belly and these clothes off," I grumbled, not too happy with having splatters of Erik's blood on my sweater. Catching sight of myself in the large oval mirror, I stopped. A pang of sorrow ran through me as I realised that this was the closest I would ever get to being pregnant. Never would I look like this, never would I know what it was like to carry and raise a child my child, mine and Jared's child.

I hadn't considered whether I'd ever want kids before now. Although I wasn't the most maternal person, I would rather not have had the choice taken away from me. Now that it was, I realised exactly how much I had wanted a child someday.

Obviously having sensed my change of mood, Jared appeared and slipped his arms around me. "What is it?"

I twirled in his hold. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

"Don't you regret that you'll never get to have kids?" I didn't like the way his face seemed to shut down.

He backed away, shrugging. "I don't think I'd have been good at parenting anyway."

"Why do you say that?"

He sighed, shrugging again. "I just don't. Some people shouldn't have kids." And with that odd little comment he disappeared back into the living area.

Suspecting it was something to do with his mother and making a mental note to ask him to elaborate later, I changed into my white tank top and combat pants. It was then that we sought out Antonio. To my surprise, he wasn't in one of his parlours. He was sitting on a bench in his indoor botanical gardens with Luther, Wes, and Lena. As usual, his guards and dogs also lingered close.

After hearing Jared's account of what had happened, Antonio shook his head sadly. "I was hoping to find that Jude was wrong about vampires being involved in such an awful thing. I think it is now safe to say that she was correct. I'll get Ryder to..."

Antonio's voice seemed to fade away as my attention was snagged by the pulse beating in Jared's throat. I couldn't seem to look away from it, I felt literally mesmerised by it. Watching it throbbing had me licking my lips, had my stomach clenching. Then everything went black.

(Jared) Shock seized and froze my entire body as Sam suddenly dived on me and latched on to my throat. It was nothing like her usual bites. There was nothing teasing or sensual about the way she sunk her teeth down hard, gulping my blood like she'd die on the spot if she didn't. Antonio tried to pry her away, but she locked her limbs around me and growled.

She f.u.c.king growled!

Worse, in spite of the pain, her Svente saliva was making me h.o.r.n.y as s.h.i.+t and I was going to come in my jeans if someone didn't detach her from me quickly.

It took the combined efforts of Antonio, Wes, Luther, and the guards to wrench her away. She fought their hold kicking, scratching, and punching them. All the while, she hissed, growled, and snapped her teeth. Her pupils were completely dilated and she was shaking. She looked...crazed. The bottom fell out of my stomach as a heavy weight hit my chest. s.h.i.+t, no.

I cupped her chin hard, but she managed to escape my grip. Then she curled her upper lip at me; it was a warning and a challenge. I framed her face with my hands, holding it still. "Sam, stop!" She didn't. "Sam, I said stop!" My words didn't even seem to register. Her focus was now solely on my throat. If the others weren't still restraining her, she'd have been latched on to my throat again.

"Maybe you should try slapping her," suggested Wes.

I shot him a scowl. I had no intention of hurting her. But that did give me an idea. Not knowing what else to do, I released a small harmless electrical discharge something I hoped might snap her out of it. Her body jerked, but not in pain, in shock. I did it again, and again, and again, breathing a sigh of relief when her struggles stopped.

Reason and rationality soon returned to her eyes, and she glanced at us all oddly. "What the f.u.c.k?"

"Let her go." Dubious, the others slowly released her. I curled my arms around her and kissed her hair. "I don't know what the h.e.l.l just happened. It was like you flipped or something."

"Flipped?"

"You acted much like a newborn vampire," said Wes. "You were wild."

She swallowed hard as anxiety and worry flashed on her face, but she quickly blanked her expression. "I'm deteriorating, aren't I?" It wasn't really a question.

Antonio patted her back. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Five minutes later, after Reuben had once again amplified Lena's gift, she and Sam sat on the bench as Lena studied her. I held Sam's hand, needing to touch her. Nothing had ever shocked me more than when she leaped at me like that. Nothing. Watching her in pain was awful, but looking at the only woman I'd ever loved and seeing nothing of that woman there...That was ten times worse.

Finally, Lena took a long breath and sat back. After taking a few mouthfuls of the NST that the guards had given her, she began to speak. "Your DNA has changed since I last looked. As last time there were certain equations that didn't add up, I had expected after what just happened to find that those equations made absolutely no sense. But it is not that at all. In fact, those equations almost add up perfectly. What has changed is that these equations have become more complicated."

I didn't like the sound of that. "What does that mean?"