Escaping from the Vampire Rogue- Chapter 3

Published: January 29, 2020

3

KAYLA

Thdump.

Kayla’s body jerked.

Thdump.

Her head crashed against what felt like a brick covered
in thin rough carpet.

Her eyes shot open to blackness.

What the hell?

Flashes of streetlights flickered through the windows as
they passed. Her body lay in an awkward angle.

Had she passed out?

She shot up to look around, but her bones froze. Her
breath caught in her throat. Every seat in the front of the truck was filled
with bodies. Eight heavily muscled scary as shit bodies.

Instantly, she slouched back into the tight crawlspace
of the trunk. So far, none of them noticed her sudden consciousness. She just
needed to keep it that way. Her life depended on it.

Without moving a hair, her eyes cut to the window to
even worse news. They were traveling at breakneck speeds down the highway. Her
only hope of escape meant jumping into oncoming traffic even it meant possibly
dying on impact. Her gut upturned at the thought but what choice did she have?

She scanned the darkness for the safety lever. There. On
the door next to her knees sat a lime green florescent handle. She inwardly
sighed.

Thank you foremages.  At least she was trapped in a modern vehicle.
Otherwise… she shuddered to think.

Without a second thought, Kayla reached for the safety handle to a harsh crunch of a pile of freaking fast-food wrappers under her. She froze.

The heat from eight pairs of eyes set their gaze on her.
Shit.

“Mmm. Look who’s awake.” A voice purred from the back
seat. Her heart lodged itself in her throat. Even with a mask hiding his face, its
owner was unmistakable. He was the mage who killed Derrek.

“Leave the bounty alone. You know the rules.”

His eyes flashed with purple electric currents, but he
didn’t turn away from her. When their eyes locked, the feeling of his essence forced
its way into her body. It was so strong that not even her tonic could smother
it. An acrid sickness bubbled at the back of her throat. Her gut roiled.
Dizziness made the car turn lopsided like she’d taken a spin on a rollercoaster
after drinking her weight in alcohol. She swayed, ready to hurl her guts out.

His essence was wrong. It didn’t feel homey or
reassuring like it had when she felt one of her kin. Instead, his was cold and
tattered and grotesque.

She’d never felt one before, but after feeling him, there
was only one thing he could be. Syste. A magic stealer.

Only a magic stealer could feel so foul. One glance at
the menacing shot of purple electricity in his eyes confirmed her suspicion. The
mage in front of her was the stuff of nightmares.

“Mmm, what’s wrong, kitten?”

Her breath quickened. Could he feel her essence through the tonic like she could feel his? She hoped not. Syste had a constant need to feed their magic. If he’d even guessed she was mage also, he’d syphon from her until there was nothing left of her.

He gave her a sick grin.

Maybe he could. Shit.

She gulped, unable to take her eyes away from his.

“Mmm.” He let out a purr and stroked the leather
headrest, refusing to break eye contact. “Let me have a little fun with her.”

“I thought you were into other witches.”

“Mages,” he corrected. Did she detect an elitist undertone? He had a lot of nerve. The man was Syste, the bottom of the barrel for their kind. “It’s more powerful that way. But I can take from humans every once in a while. No one is without magic.”

Oh, thank the foremages. He thought she was human.

“Fine, then we’ll tell Splinters to ask you the
questions when we turn up and she’s dead.”

“Where are you taking me?” her voice spoke on its own volition.

The entire car stilled.

Clearly that was a mistake. She should have kept her
freaking mouth closed and readied her escape while the men conversed. Too late
now. Her plan thrust into action. She scrambled for the safety lever and the
truck erupted in a flurry.

“What the hell is she doing?”

“Trying to get out. Don’t let her.”

“Is she fucking crazy?”

“Bind her. Hurry.”

Just as she grabbed the florescent green glow-in-the-dark
handle, her hand melted. Then, her arms deadened and her entire body went crashing
into the door of the trunk.

“Please let me go.”

“Shut her up!” A voice, who she assumed was the driver, called
from the front of the car.

“No, wai—” her vocal cords seized. A gust of harsh wind
entered her mouth and didn’t stop until she closed it.

“She good?”

“Mmm. For now.”

“Jesus. Why do I have to tell you all how to do every
fucking thing. You had one job. If you weren’t so busy getting high our
bounty wouldn’t have almost escaped.”

“It’s done now. Calm yourself,” the mage’s voice
sing-songed when he replied. He didn’t seem to care that the driver was losing
his shit in the front seat.

“Fuck, we haven’t eaten in weeks. We need this payday.
What if she’d gotten out?”

“Mmm, you wouldn’t have gotten out, would you have, kitten?”

“Don’t fucking say another word to her.”

In an instant, the electric current in the mage’s eyes
extinguished. He scowled, eyes darting into hatred, but he turned around and
sat forward. The foul feeling of his essence eased.

She would have been relieved if the car hadn’t veered
off the highway. It was too dark to see where they were exactly. Just that the
longer they traveled, the fewer cars she’d seen. The car drove through a
labyrinth of streets until they met a dirt road and engine cut.

She peeked through the window. On one side lay an open
field, the other an abandoned airplane hangar. There were no planes and no
other cars. The place was a freaking ghost town.

What the hell was she going to do now?

She didn’t have time to think of another plan.

The trunk opened forcing her to spill forward. One of her
captors caught her before she crashed into the dirt and pulled her onto her feet.
The group walked toward the hanger.

Did they really expect her to walk like this? Her legs
were bound at the knees.

“Come on,” the man rounded back and roughly yanked her in
the direction of the others. Apparently, so. Shuffling in her stilettos, she tried
to follow.

A sudden movement caught her attention. Several yards
away, two figures tussled to the ground. After being pulled up, a swing of dark
hair showed Breanne fighting until the much larger man wrapped her in a caged
grip.

“Yeah, you feel that. Don’t you? Stand up and maybe this
won’t accidentally end up in your throat.”

Breanne whimpered. Kayla fought to breathe.

“What the hell is this?” A new voice joined the fray. She
was pushed toward the light coming from the empty airplane hangar.

One of the men near Breanne spoke first. “There were two
of them, Splinters. I-I mean, boss.”

Her captor dragged her forward to a thin balding man with a greasy comb-over. More jarring was the thick scar that ran down his face. It was a deep cut that looked like it had been sewn together by hand but met a severe infection before it had the chance to heal.

“Excuse me?” Splinter’s rough voice asked looking
between the two groups.

Breanne was forced next to her. She wanted to hug her so
bad. Or grab her hand or do something to reassure her that everything was going
to be okay.

The boss looked between the two of them, then at the
collective behind them. “So, in your incompetence, you brought me two? I asked if
you could do this. You assured me you could.”

“I did,” the voice was eager. “She’s here. One of them.
They both look the same as the picture…See?”

The man with the scar ripped the picture from his grasp and held it up to Breanne’s face. He examined her with beady eyes for a moment before sucking his yellowing teeth and spitting at the dirt near her shoes.

“That mage thinks he can get one over on me? There has
to be a way to tell which one’s his daughter.”

The wind caught in her throat. Disbelief scattered her
thoughts. She visibly shook. They were looking for her.

Tears threatened at the corner of her eyes again. It all made sense now. The guards, the beefy security staff. This wasn’t just one of her father’s oddities. Her life had always been in real actual danger. Why hadn’t he said anything? How could she have chalked it up to him being overprotective? Cow buckets, she was so freaking dumb.

“We can ask them questions,” a tall man with a highly
angular face offered from the collective.

Splinter’s cut his gaze at the taller one and scowled.
“Come here.”

He paused before taking a hesitant step forward.

“Closer.”

A few more steps and he was toe to toe with the scarred
man. In a move no one saw coming, Splinter’s balled his fist and rammed it into
his gut. The lanky man doubled over with a groan.

“Anyone else want to say something stupid?”

Silence.

“I have an auction starting in less than twenty minutes.
Do I look like I have time for an interrogation?”

“No sir,” the group said in near unison.

The scarred man looked at the picture again and got into
Breanne’s face. She squirmed when he put a finger to her temple and stroked it
down. She looked ready to barf and she didn’t blame her. For a non-magical, he
felt disgusting.

Then his gaze moved off Breanne and onto her. His beady
eyed stare bore into the side of her face as he examined the photo, then her. She
stilled and prayed like hell there was very little resemblance.

His calloused finger felt like slime and bad dreams as he stroked her chin and studied her. After an agonizing moment, he dropped his hand and tossed the group a scathing look.

“Figure out which one is which. You have five minutes,”
he turned away and walked back inside of a large warehouse.

The entire group let out a collective breath when he disappeared inside. The tall one with high cheekbones spoke first. “So, what do we do?”

Everyone else looked at the mage. She shook in fear.

“Mmm. What are you all looking at me for?”

“Which one is she?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“You are the one who found them. Or did you
get it wrong?”

“No, I’m not wrong,” he smirked and gave her a wink that made her skin crawl. “The magic in that apartment building was strong. It stopped just before these two came out and got into the car with their driver.”

“I told you we shouldn’t have taken his word for it,”
someone said mutinously from the group.

“Zee, please tell me you have something other than a
hunch,” the commanding one pleaded, but it ground out like a threat.

“Their driver was a mage. There’s no reason for a mage
to be a driver. Unless he’s guarding someone.”

The commanding one sucked his teeth and stepped toward him.
Zee wasn’t fazed by the proximity. He kept the same laissez-faire stance and a
playful smirk even though their noses practically touched.

“Carter,” one of them grabbed his arm in caution.

“No fucking names. How hard is that for you all to
understand?” He seethed, glancing at the two of them.

“Sorry, I—”

But Carter had already turned back to the mage this time with a smidge more space between them. “Tell me we didn’t snatch these two on a fucking guess.”

“Mmm. Methinks, one of them is hiding,” his sing-song voice dragged out every syllable as he craned his head to look at her. He cocked his head, letting his gaze linger on her.

She avoided his eyes.

He knew.

Somewhere deep inside, he had to.

“We just need to find out which one.”

“How?” Carter asked.

“Force the essence to reveal itself. Mmm, this is going
to be fun.” He stepped around Carter. With a flick of his hand, her body
loosened.

She steeled herself to run, but a pair of strong gloved
hands held her in place. The mage stared at her with the same sick gleam in his
eyes as he had in the car.

“I can’t wait to test you, kitten. But first, I need to talk to your friend.” He continued in the annoying sing-song deranged quality as he turned to Breanne. He watched her squirm. “Are you going to make this easy or hard?”

Another sick grin. He waited.

“I guess it’s the hard way then.”

Breanne stepped back. Kayla wanted to tell her to run,
but she couldn’t speak. Only her chains had been loosened, not the hold on her
mouth.

“Mmm, we can’t have you run off again now, can we?”

In an instant, Breanne’s heels anchored to the ground and
she toppled over. Two of the men pulled her upright.

The mage grinned wickedly. “Ah, that’s better. Now,
where were we?”

He raised her hand and wrapped his long knobby fingers
around her arm. He smirked when she didn’t look at him. “All you have to do is
answer one question.”

“I can’t.” the words came rushing out of Breanne’s
mouth. She looked surprised by that. It made Kayla test her own restraints. She
opened her mouth, but a rush of wind made it impossible to speak.

“Mmm, you’ll get your turn,” the mage cut a glance at her
and gave her another nasty wink.

She gagged.

“Enough, we don’t have time for this shit. Can you tell
or not?” A commanding voice made them all flinch.

“I can,” he cocked his head to one side and stared at
Breanne, grip tightening against her forearm. His fingers dug into her flesh.

“Please,” she pleaded.

“Last chance, which one of you is the mage.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Wrong answer.” The lightning in his eyes flashed before erupting from his fingertips and into Breanne. Her knees buckled. Her screams echoed off the buildings and into the empty field.

“Keep her quiet.”

Her yells immediately cut off, but her pain was
palpable.

Kayla opened her mouth to confess but there was only
wind. She struggled against the grip of the man, trying to force her body free.

Suddenly, the wind in her mouth stopped. So did his hold
on Breanne’s arm.

Gulping in a large breath, she found her words. “Don’t
hurt her.”

She jerked against the vise grip around her arms in an
attempt to grab Breanne before she swayed to the ground, but her kidnapper kept
her in place. The mage leaned toward her. She gulped.

“Mmm, don’t want your friend to have all the fun?”

A flutter of laughter sprang through the collective. Dread
forced her to shake her head no.

“Aww, you’re no fun. Fine, I’ll wager you. Tell me which
one of you is the mage and I won’t have to hurt you too.”

“No one.”

He cocked an eyebrow, his thin lips settled into a
smirk. He knew it was her. But the sick bastard wanted to play some more.

“How about we see about that?”

He grabbed her wrist and the purple electricity slid
down his arm and into her. Her insides shred. Heat seared like lava through her
stomach as his magic poured into her. He was burning her from the inside out. Just
like when he constricted it around Derrek, her vision blurred. She clutched at
her stomach. It felt like he using it to force her body inside out.

A scream tore from her throat as she bent over.

“Stop, please,” she cried. He didn’t let up. His magic double-downed.

“Tell me who’s the mage.”

She opened her mouth to another scream and crumbled to
her knees.

“Enough,” Carter said.

He didn’t stop. His magic pressed into her. It was as if
death itself had entered her, weaving his tattered essence across her insides. Scorching
and burning as it went. Deeper and further, jumbling in her throat making it
hard to breathe.

“I said, enough!”

The magic released. The fire stopped. The mage staggered
backward. A trickle of blood trailed down his nose.

No one moved for a moment. She heaved.

“Let me get a little more of her.” The mage’s voice was
rough like the gravel digging into her knees.

“Fuck, you’re trying to get high right now? We need to
figure this shit out and you’re taking a hit?”

“I need to find her essence. The magic will rebound to
protect itself,” he slurred, then pointed at her. “Something’s wrong with this
one.”

“Is she a fucking mage or not?”

His gaze settled into slits but he kept his gaze fixed
on her. “I don’t know yet.”

The collected erupted in agitated sighs and groans.

“I thought you had something,” Carter waved his tan arms
in the air like he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“I do, I just need to make it come out,” his heavy boots
thudded toward her, but the commanding one charged him, pushing him back a few
steps.

“I swear to God after this payday, I’m never working
with you again. Move.”

He pushed the mage again with a rough grip until he
stilled, then kneeled in front of her. He reached for her shoulder. She recoiled.

“Are you alright?” His voice made a complete 180. The
sound was gentle but the gentleness didn’t meet his hand as he gripped her
shoulder. “Listen, I’m running out of time and I can’t afford to get this
wrong. No one is going to get hurt. The girl we need is only going to be held
for ransom then she gets to go home. No harm will come to her.”

A weird feeling settled in her gut; he was different
than the others. Definitely not deranged like the psychopath behind him who kept
his eerie gaze on her as he wiped a thumb against the blood trickling from his
nose. He examined it for a moment the licked it. Ick.

“I promise, no one has to get hurt.” There was a
sincerity in the commanding one’s face as he glanced between her and Breanne.
His eyes lingered on her friend for a moment longer than necessary. Kayla could
have sworn she saw something flash in them. Concern? Regret?

By the foremages, the Syste’s syphon was making her
loopy. There was no way he’d have any empathy in his line of work. Yet there
was something in the way he said it, something trustworthy. Yeah, she needed to
take a nap and rest. He’d syphoned from her hard.

“And the other one, what happens to her?” her voice scratched
as it came out.

Silence beat between them. He sighed. “She gets to go
home.”

Lie. She felt it in her whole soul. The girl who wasn’t
the mage wasn’t ever going home again. She glanced at Breanne’s shaking frame
then back at Carter. There was only one real option. It was an impossible choice.
Lie to them and save her friend or don’t and have her condemned. She knew what
she had to do. What had the foremages forsaken her?

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to let my friend here
continue his own interrogation.”

In an instant any gentleness she might have seen before vanished. His face was hard again and he stood up, lording over her. Behind him, the mage’s eyes flashed dangerously in threat. She involuntarily struggled against an unknown force that seemed to take over her body keeping it anchored to the ground and spoke around a lump in her throat. “Why are you doing this?”

More regret.

“I just want to go home,” Breanne choked out, then
devolved into tears.

“Zee,” the commanding one gave him a short bow, the
go-ahead to continue.

“Mmm, I love this part,” he smirked and went to Breanne.

“Please, Carter. Don’t do this,” Breanne’s voice choked
in a whisper.

For the second time, everyone stopped and looked at the
commanding one. Even the mage.

“Dude, you fucking know her?” High cheekbones shouted in
disbelief and pointed at Breanne.

“Of course, she fucking does,” he growled. “E’s dumbass said
it a few minutes ago. See? This is what it does. Makes them think they can get
to you.”

He turned to Breanne with a scowl. Then he balled his fist at his side and grabbed her by the collar of her dress. Breanne shook harder.

Shit.

“I’m sorry, please.”

“Shut up,” he growled and slapped her. Hard. The sound echoed
across the field. Breanne wailed. “Are you going to keep using my name?”

She shook her head but he moved to strike again.

“Stop,” the words came flying out of Kayla’s mouth. “Don’t
hurt her. I’ll tell you who it is.”

He let Breanne go but didn’t move, a stark reminder that he’d continue if he thought she was playing games.

“She’s who you’re looking for.”

“Kayla, what are you doing?” Breanne asked.

The man behind Breanne forced her forward.

“I’m telling them the truth.” Kayla pointed at her.
“She’s the mage.”

Breanne looked up to Carter and back at her. Betrayal
and disbelief lined her eyes. Maybe one day she’d get to explain that she did it
to save her.

“Take her,” Carter said to the men behind her.

“Wait. I’m not. Carter,” she begged.

“Shut her up,” he turned to the mage.

Immediately, she was silenced again with gushes of air making it near impossible to breathe let alone speak no doubt. Kayla watched as they dragged her into the hanger.

When she no longer saw her, Carter and the few that remained
turned to her. She tried to back away, but her body didn’t move.

“You said you were going to let me go,” her voice
wobbled.

“That’s not my call to make.”

Truth.

He nodded toward the group behind her. They hoisted her up
and dragged her inside the hangar.

 “There you are, kitten.” The mage winked. From her shocked expression, his smirk stretched into a snicker. “Did you miss me?”

Shit, this was it. They were going to let him
have her. Now, it was her turn to shake.

“You’re going to kill me.” The words gurgled as they tugged her forward. The heel of her stilettoes scraped as several of them pulled out a black crate filled with holes and opened the door. The hinges screeched as it swung wide.

“We’re not going to kill you, kitten. But there’s no
guarantee that he won’t.”

Then, they threw her in the cage.

Chapter 4 will be out on Sunday (Feb 2)

Author’s Note: No voting this week. I still haven’t fulfilled the voting from two weeks ago. I’m getting my act together this week, I swear! Where are the days going? It’s like I wake up, write then all of a sudden it’s bedtime again and the chapter’s not done. What the heck? BUT, up next, we finally meet Garrick! Yay!

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Until Next Time,

Sabrina