Mad Woman Rambles

Again, I cursed Audrey with warts in the most unpleasant of places. ’What good is a S.N.O.B. legal representative if they couldn’t get you out of captivity without strings attached?’  I deliberated, agitated by the turn of events from the night before. Negotiations did not go the way I wanted. I sighed, chomping on a Snickers bar as I grimaced to myself. Korbin was infuriating with his need to touch me in front of Nathan.

“It’s to show ownership over you, cricket,” I mimicked his deep throaty voice. “I don’t remember you complaining this much about it before,” he added to be his usual, annoying self. I scoffed as I caught my hand drifting to the side of my neck where his thumb had played along my pulse point. I had to fight the urge to let my eyelids flutter closed and moan. That bloodsucker always got a kick out of my reactions to him.

Stupid, stupid girl, Krystal. I admonished myself, allowing my head to thunk against the wall behind me. Not only did he play with my freedom and emotions, but Korbin also threw me back in this funky cell. I should have known after he negotiated that I stay in his “care” that I would be relegated back to being less than.

Nathan had insisted that I be treated like a criminal and held in an area where I couldn’t escape until he could interrogate me. I guess it is fortunate it is here and that Marcus and Audrey would be allowed to be present. I get the opportunity to rest as well, since the negotiation didn’t conclude until dawn. So, I have an entire day to stew. I will admit Audrey was good for something; she was able to get me a bed here and better food. Though she commented that the food they had been serving me didn’t seem reprehensible.

“Moping is unbecoming, Krystal. Chin up,” Marcus’s melodious voice called to me, stirring me from my lament.

“Have you come to end my miserable life?” I asked, not bothering to look his way as I tossed the remainder of my candy on the half-eaten tray of junk food.  I could feel his eyebrow quirk up in surprise.

“You turn down gorging yourself on your favorite foods. This is dire indeed,” he mused.

“Marcus, it has been a long –,” I paused as I watched two other vamps drag a half-dead girl behind Marcus to the other cell beside mine. “Is she okay?” I asked, quickly moving to the bars to get a better look at the woman. Marcus turned his attention in her direction, but didn’t answer me.

“What did y’all do to her?!” I exclaimed as I took in her ragged state of dress and the dried blood and dirt covering her.

“We didn’t do anything,” Marcus heaved a heavy breath. His jaw tightened. “I found her half dead… I did what I had to do,” he finished through clenched teeth.

“Oh, Marcus,” I said, reaching out to touch his arm in comfort but thinking the better of it. It had been the better part of a millennium since Marcus had turned someone. It was adamantly against it after what happened to Yoli. Korbin had told me one night when he was drunk off of fae wine. Marcus had only sired two people in his long life. It looks like he now sired a third.

“It’s fine,” he tsked and looked back to me. “Come, let’s get you back to your room.” He unlocked the cell door as the other vamps took him to the side. Their conversation was hushed, but I picked up ‘dug’, grave’, ‘not drinking’, and ‘different’. I eyed them as my curiosity won out, and I slid over to the newbie vamp. I peered inside the cell, taking in her frame that appeared to be so small as she lay curled in on herself.

I knelt down to get a better look at her, but her long, straight hair covered her face. Her caramel skin was covered in bruises, scratches, and dried blood. One strappy heel hung off her ankle, and her dress was ripped in various places. She was a mess. Why would Marcus turn her, of all people? It looked like someone tried to make a meal of her and left her for dead.

“What happened to you?” I breathed more to myself than anyone in particular.

“I don’t know,” her rasped reply came, startling me.

“Sweet morning glories!” I exclaimed as I fell back on my ass. She stirred, then moving in the unnaturally quick speed vamps had. Unfortunately for me, baby vamps were supercharged, and everything was heightened. She grabbed my wrist and the bars of her cell.

I gasped as her death played out for me in 4D. Her and a man out for a night on the town. Celebrating. An unknown vamp making a meal of the man and killing him. Another unknown vamp sniffing her, Necromancer, he whispered before savaging her throat. All I felt was pain, fear, and the comfort of her final death before I was ripped out of it.

“Breathe, Krystal!” Marcus barked at me. “Breathe,” he said more calmly as I inhaled all the air my body had apparently forgotten it needed. “That’s it,” he said, trying to soothe me as he stared into my wide eyes. He shook his head as one of the other vamps went to reach for me. But Marcus shielded me.

“Don’t touch her,” he ordered, and the vamp backed up quickly. I stared at Marcus.

“Her hands,” I whispered, tears freely falling down my cheeks. “Why?” I asked, not expecting an answer. Marcus’s jaw tensed.

“Mind the trouble you are already in, Krystal. There is no reason to go borrow more,” he sighed, suddenly looking far older and more tired than he had been moments ago. All I could do is stare at him, then I turned back to the poor woman in the cell beyond him.

“Calily,” I whispered. “Her name is Calily.”   Marcus nodded and pulled me to stand up. His jaw worked as he tried to swallow whatever emotion he was trying to hide. It is a good thing we have known each other long enough for him to learn how to shield against my clairvoyant touch.

“Let’s go, cricket. You have a long night of questions ahead of you,” he said, guiding me back up the stairs. The funny thing was I didn’t think he just meant Nathan’s questions. He and Korbin would want to know what I had just seen. Unknown vampires in their territory and a necromancer. There had not been a necromancer left alive in over three thousand years. Vampires don’t keep their gifts after they have been turned. This one was not only alive-ish, but she was powerful, and her gift hadn’t disappeared with the turn.