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Chapter Sixty five
The vampiress glided across the floor, fangs bared, eyes flashing. "Incompetence, sheer stupidity," she hissed, disgust written across her feline features.
She lowered herself into her expensive Italian armchair and tapped her long red fingernails against the glossy wood. After a minute her anger began to fade as she considered the situation. "Perhaps it will work in our favor. From what he said about the males guarding her she might have been impossible to get to. With her friends as hostages…yes, this might be for the best."
The one to whom she spoke nodded with feigned interest. Terrina was rabidly bent on this new female's demise and Alyssa knew why it was so, Jared had been seen leaving the bar with her. She liked being under the male herself, but she had not developed Terrina’s obsession with him. In her opinion it would be better to try and convince the female to turn rather than kill her, but she doubted Terrina would give her that choice.
The two vampiress' had nearly the same shade of eyes and hair color, but that was where the similarity ended. While Terrina was tall and fierce, Alyssa was petite and docile. Secretly she thought that Jared preferred her smaller stature, a fact she would never mention to the stronger female, not and keep her pretty eyes in her face. Much stronger females had ended up beneath the ground for less. Terrina was no one to trifle with. Alyssa was content to act as the complacent sidekick and reap the benefits of the wealthy life they lived. Extravagant shopping sprees, wild dancing, fucking males and drinking the human drug had kept her entertained and occupied for centuries.
There was one small thing about her that no one knew and certainly her housemate could never know. She had only killed once. Three hundred years ago she had been given the choice to die or to turn. She had only been 26 years at the time and too weak and timid to take a stand. So she had drank the man to death and lost the sun forever. What she had never understood was that it didn’t seem to have changed her as severely as all the others. She pretended she was as indifferent and cruel as they were and yet…yet she had never killed another human in all those years.
She glanced at Terrina who had hopped off her perch on the chair and was pacing the room again.
“I do believe that I will refrain from killing the female right away,” she said, “I’ll send for the traitorous bastard first, let him watch while I remove her head from her little neck.”
Alyssa frowned. “Why would he care? Just because he screwed her doesn’t mean it will bother him,” she pointed out.
Terrina glared in her direction. “I have reason to believe the male has more feelings than anyone knows about. He still walks in the sun.” She continued to pace and plot until Paulo arrived with his two abused and frightened deliveries. He dumped them on the floor at Terrina’s feet and she glanced from one to the other with undisguised disgust.
She turned to Paulo, her mouth set in a grim line. "Which is the one you interrogated?" He pointed to Jess’s shaking form.
“Then I will speak to the other.”
She bent down and hauled Jenna into a sitting position. Jenna’s eyes sparked both fear and defiance as she studied the vampiress. The female cupped Jenna’s face with one hand then curved her long red fingernails into the gag and yanked it from her mouth.
"You will call your vampiress and I will speak to her and negotiate your release." She pulled a knife from her bag to cut the rope on Jenna's right hand then pressed her phone into it.
Jenna stared at the device for a moment then looked up at her captor’s face and smirked. She gripped the offensive electronic and in a swift motion hurled it against the far wall, shattering the encasement.
Terrina blinked in disbelief and her lip curled. “That wasn’t wise.” She struck Jenna, splitting her lip wide open.
Jess cried out from her fetal position on the floor, the sound muffled behind her muzzle, but Jenna just wiped the blood across her sleeve and glared at her assailant.
Terrina raised an eyebrow. “I see why you chose to question the other one," she said to Paulo, then turned to Alyssa. “Give that one your phone,” she instructed.
After Jess's bonds were cut she shakily dialed the number avoiding Jenna's accusatory look. It went straight to voice mail. She tried twice more with the same result and Terrina snatched the phone from her hand, her anger mounting.
She handed the phone back to Alyssa. “We’ll try again later,” she spat. “For now…” She walked to the center of the room and looked back at the two girls speculatively. “It's not really necessary for us to have two of them, is it?" Terrina glanced at Alyssa who shrugged indifferently.
Terrina picked her knife back up and turned it over and over in her hand. She shifted her gaze from one girl to the other. “I think that the more loyal of the two and one who has visions will be of more value to the female." She turned towards Jenna and watched her face drain of color. She smiled slowly and nodded towards her as she spoke, "Besides, I think I will rather enjoy seeing that one’s expression as her sister dies."
Jess cried out, trying to scramble backwards and Terrina laughed, stepping on her hair.
"NO!" Jenna yelled struggling against her bonds. "We're both valuable, Anna......" Terrina stopped her midsentence by seizing her throat and throwing her into the wall.
She turned back to Jess who had flipped over and was attempting to crawl away and with a cruel smile she walked over until she was straddling her.
“Pathetic,” she spat, then bent down and grabbed her by the hair and hauled her up against her chest.
She smiled widely at Jenna as she slid the knife across Jess’s neck, drawing her tongue across the blood welling up from the long cut.
Jess gasped soundlessly and Jenna screamed, trying desperately to get to her feet. She was promptly pushed back down by Alyssa's heeled shoe and the female spoke so quietly it sounded like the rustle of dead leaves. "There's nothing you can do, she gets off on others’ suffering."
Terrina ran her tongue back and forth the length of the wound and Paulo, who had been quietly observing the scene, stepped up beside her and whispered, “There’s no reason for waste, let me have her.”
She licked her lips and stared into the girl’s terrified eyes then looked back at Paulo and shrugged. "I suppose, but it will be your payment since you botched the job so badly."
He nodded and hoisted Jess over his shoulder, then strode through the door of the house and was gone.
"What's he doing with her?" Jenna demanded in a strangled voice, her breath coming out in little screams.
"Oh it’s of no consequence to you, she is mere minutes from death," Terrina said dismissively.
Jenna blinked away the tears that were forming and pushed her grief aside, overcome by the need to keep her head clear. She trembled as she stared at the unholy bitch, burning her face in her mind while allowing a cold rage to wash through her. I will kill you, she silently vowed, I will murder you and smile exactly like you did as you take your last breath.
Alyssa caught the murderous look in Jenna’s eyes and felt a brief spark of sympathy. "I think you should try and call the female again.” She held out her phone to Terrina.
Terrina nodded, relishing the scent of pain coming from the girl on the floor, amused by the anger. She took the phone and tried several times. It became obvious that the phone would likely remain off until morning and she growled in frustration. It appeared her transaction would have to wait until the following night. Refastening the human’s gag she threw her up on her shoulder and strode out of the room. She reached a door and yanked it open, revealing a steep stairwell leading down into the dark. She dropped the girl on the top step and gave her a push, watching her roll down into the basement. She stood glaring down at her for a moment then slammed the door with a resounding thud.
Anna sat outside on the porch lost in thought. She'd had trouble sleeping and it was still over an hour before the sun would begin its ascent into the sky. Michael had not been happy with the news that she wanted to stay mated to Jared. His reaction caused her to suspect that he had said something to make Jess believe what she’d said.
Unsurprisingly Matthias was her biggest supporter. He seemed vehemently against breaking the bond, making comments about how painful it would be and causing Anna to wonder if he'd experienced it. He also seemed confident that when some time had passed and she had yet to break it, Jared would return to find out why.
She kept replaying their night together, and each time she was filled with longing and desire like she'd never known before. Not even when she was in heat, that had been mindless. This went much deeper.
Seth burst out onto the porch, startling her. He held his phone out, worry creasing his brow.
She took the phone. "Hello?"
"Anna?" It was Harriet and she sounded panicky.
Anna shot to her feet, "What is it?"
"The girls, they did not come home last night. They went out to dinner and told me they'd planned to visit a club. I went to bed early and when I woke up they weren't here. They're not answering their phones, something must have happened. I can't see anything, I've tried, but my visions are forsaking me."
Dread curled in Anna’s stomach. During the night she'd had a dream about Jenna, she couldn't recall it but she remembered being afraid. Oh God, how stupid! She'd drank from her, it wasn't just a dream, it was a link like the one she'd had with Michael! She sat frozen for a moment before she realized-I drank from her, I can track her.
"Harriet, I'll find them. I'll keep you posted." She hung up as the males were filing out, led by Seth who'd overheard.
"I drank from Jenna," she told them feeling wobbly, "I can find them."
Matthias gripped her arms to steady her. "Okay, here's what we'll do. The three of us will drink from you so we can follow as you track." He turned to Seth, "I think it would be smart to bring a car, you can track us through our phones." Seth nodded, grabbing the keys.
Anna nodded and Matthias took her wrist. When they’d all taken from her she walked into the yard and concentrated as hard as she could. After a moment she sensed the direction and leapt off the porch letting her body take over.
Generously created for me by @son-of-satire