CHAPTER ELEVEN

I kept my eyes closed as my mind began to clear from the darkness. I could feel that my wrists were cuffed behind my back and I had tape over my mouth. I could also feel that I was on a couch. I sensed out and found two females next to me on the couch—Michelle and Amber. And a young male on the floor at our feet—Julius. There was also a man in the room on the other side and one off to our left. The watchers’ boss and a guard.

I focused my mind to find Felix and I couldn’t. Perhaps he was just too far away.

Second choice, which I had no other option in, was Mike. I searched for him and found him not too far away.

Mike?

Serenity, he asked, concerned. Where are you?

The sweepers have us, I told him. Where are you?

Michelle’s house.

Second floor, last room, spare bed, black duffel bag, I told him. The GPS palm pilot is in it.

Understood.

And I disconnected with him, needing to save my energy.

I could hear Michelle and Amber as they muffled threats and insults through their taped mouths. I couldn’t hear Julius at the moment. I could sense that he was just waking up from unconsciousness.

“Don’t be so angry, Michelle,” the man on the far side of the room said. “You brought this on yourself.”

I recognized his voice. And it was no wonder Michelle was so pissed and scared. It was her father, Cedric Davis Corey.

I began to stir, putting on the front of just coming out of a drug-induced sleep.

“Ah. The little Trans is finally waking up,” he said as he got up and made his was to where we were menacingly slow.

I sat up as he knelt down before me, spreading my knees so he could lean in closer. He placed his hand on the side of my face and slowly traced his fingers down my cheek, removing the tape in a quick motion when he got to the side of it.

“I think I’ll keep you for myself,” he said. His voice low and husky, slightly demented.

“What the Hell is going on?” I asked, putting on the act of a frightened teen.

“You know, it’s a shame that you colored your hair. I really did love the silver.” He twists a lock of my hair between his fingers, bringing it to his mouth as he takes in the scent. “So, Trista?” he asked me after a moment of taking in my appearance of ruffled clothes, damp hair, and seemingly fearful eyes. “I hear you’re a pretty decent fighter. Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

“M-My mother.” I stuttered ‘nervously’.

“Oh? From what I hear, you fought like most of my coworkers,” he said.

Bingo.

“I d-don’t know what y-you’re talking about,” I said with a shaky breath.

“You’ve once said that you don’t believe in Vampires.” He smirked. “Well, I don’t believe you.”

“I-I don’t know...” I trail off, ‘confused’.

“They’re real. Very real. As real as the Hunters who kill them. And it’s the Hunters that recognized your fighting style. You said you learned from your mother. Which leads me to believe that your mother was a Huntress.”

“You’re delusional,” I told him defiantly.

That caused him to backhand me. When my head flew to the side, I noticed that the bear was off the bracelet and in Michelle’s hand.

Good girl.

Corey clamped his teeth together, clearly angered by my accusation, and grabbed a fistful of my hair. He jerked me off of the couch and threw me to the floor. I hit the floor face down—my hair sprawled around me.

“Do not say such things! You’re mine, now. You will not disrespect me,” he sneered at me.

Then a door opened and I felt the presence of a trained body and a dead one. A Hunter and a Vampire.

“I hope you’re not damaging the goods, Corey,” the Vampire spoke. And surprise, surprise. The voice was that of Gerald DeKade.

“No problem. This one is staying with me,” Corey informed him.

“Fine by me. So, this is your daughter, Michelle,” DeKade mused to himself. “She’s quite the looker. And who’re her friends?”

“The girl is Amber. She’ll fetch a nice price. And the boy is Julius. He’s strong. He’ll do good as a slave,” he notified DeKade.

“Sounds good. But the boy will take time to brake in. From what your men told me, he can fight real well. That’ll make him a little insubordinate,” Decade noted.

“I don’t much care about the boy. I want to know where the girl learned to fight,” the Hunter finally spoke up.

Oh shit. I know that voice. How could I forget that voice? I heard it so much when I first became a Huntress.

“Jerrold,” I whispered under my breath.

“Excuse me?” DeKade asked.

I snickered. “Not Gerald, you moron,” I said, getting to my feet. “Jerrold.”

“That voice,” DeKade whispered to himself in disbelief.

“It can't be,” Jerrold said.

“What’s going on?” Corey asked his coworkers.

I started laughing maniacally. A deep, ominous laughter. Cackling is more like it. My hair changing from the black to its glamorous silver. The humans were scared and staring in disbelief and trepidation.

“Don’t believe in Vampires,” I mocked. Followed by some more dark laughter.

“What the hell is going on?” Corey demanded more desperately.

“Lady Tepes,” DeKade said fearfully.

“War,” Jerrold strained.

“And your brother vouched for you and everything,” I told Jerrold, my eyes changing to silver. Matching my hair with the same fierce brightness and shimmer. “You made a liar out of him. And DeKade…”

DeKade took a cautious step back. “What are you doing here, M’Lady?” he asked me. Fear tracing his every word.

Frolicking in a field of daisies. What do you think, you idiot?

“You lied to me,” I sneered at DeKade. Making him break out in a cold sweat.

“So Mike put you on this mission,” Jerrold scowled, spitting the words out. “I should have known.”

“I wasn’t the only one. Felix is the primary,” I informed him.

“Felix was a fool,” he shot at me.

But the past tense caught my attention.

“Was?” I asked.

Jerrold snickered darkly as his Hunting party piled into the room. Weapons drawn on me.

My voice lowered. Trembling with the rage that was building into an inferno. “So you are selling innocent girls to the very creatures you swore to destroy. And you killed your own baby brother to keep doing it.”

The image of Felix when he first took me to Michelle’s house flashed through my mind. His brown eyes holding no doubt when he spoke of his brother. Holding full devotion. I could sense that other Hunters were within the perimeters of this facility. Undoubtedly Mike’s group.

But I was too enraged to focus on the mission.

Jerrold killed his own little brother to keep his underhanded, despicable, outrageous hobbies a secret.

I pushed my powers out, sealing us within the room. No one could get in. And more importantly, no one could get out. Not until this was over with. Windows shook, doors slammed, furniture moved back, and everyone was in terror at the moment.

Most Hunters knew how I get when I’m pissed. They know how strong I am when I’m just throwing things around in Mike’s office. They know how much destruction I cause when I do my missions and get into a fix. And they know how thorough I am when I put a mission to rest.

My eyes turned from silver to a radiant metallic violet. My hair was shimmering with the glow of my aura. With no effort at all, the chain on the cuffs was busted and my hands were at my sides.

I tapped into Michelle, Amber, and Julius’s minds. Close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you to, I commanded them.

I could sense their apprehension for not being able to understand what they just heard, but they did what they were told. Julius was on the couch, shielding the girls. He had managed to move his cuffed hands from behind him to his front, going under his legs to do so. And now he hand his arms around the girls’ necks, holding them to him.

I was baring my fangs, ready to kill.

“Damn it, DeKade. Can’t you do something?” Corey demanded.

Before DeKade could respond, I was at his side. My hand through his chest. Holding his heart out of his back.

“I warned you,” I growled in a low whispers. Venom lacing each word.

He coughed up blood, thick and dark.

“And I keep my word. Unlike you.” With that, I crushed his heart.

His body dissipated in a smoldering blaze. Doing no harm to me.

I turned my attention back to the Hunters.

Psh. Hunters. They don’t deserve to have that title. They’ve dishonored it. And now they’re going to pay.