Archer – Present Day

 

Tam and I had been surviving on the one meal a day they left for him. The Mongers still thought I was a Vampire and seemed to hope that I would start feasting on my cell mate when I got hungry enough. The truth was that the idea of ever tasting blood again was enough to make me a vegetarian.

But we were weak. The lack of food was a big part of it, but I was also still healing from a gunshot wound that fortunately didn’t seem to have festered, and neither of us had moved more than our twenty by twenty cell would allow. At least our captors understood that a dehydrated human would make a poor source of blood for a Vampire and had regularly refilled a bucket with water in one corner. There was a drain in the opposite corner, and we had figured out the cell must have housed animals at one time. That explained the vague smells that still lingered in the air, and the clump of moldy straw we’d found. The drain was useful for our waste, though it did little to cover the rank odor that we lived in.

We had lost all sense of day or night, and Tam had taken to checking the time and date whenever he connected with Ava. She kept a calendar on her phone and would show him that, as well as whatever notes she had taken about things that were happening. For people who communicated only via images, it was surprisingly effective.

That was how I knew it was a Tuesday morning the next time they opened the cell. Tam and I had discussed all the various options for getting out, from surprising our captors with an attack, to playing daytime-dead. Ultimately, because I was still fairly weak, I thought a variation on the second option might yield the most interesting information. Walters’ presumption that I was still a Vampire was the key to such a feeble plan, and I sincerely hoped that his arrogance made him as resistant to new thought as I needed him to be.

Three Monger bodyguards entered the cell with guns and torches drawn. I immediately played dead, and Tam knew not to resist them in any way.

“What are you doing?” Tam asked. I could hear the fear in his voice wasn’t entirely feigned.

“Taking the Sucker for a little stroll. What do you care?” one of the Mongers said.

“Good. Keep him, why don’t you? He gives me the creeps.” I was proud of Tam for that.

A comically evil chuckle from a gruff-voiced Monger, “What? You don’t fancy being the main course? Yeah, we’ll see what we can do about that.”

Two of the men grabbed my arms, while the third one presumably kept his gun trained on Tam. It was amazingly difficult to make my body go completely limp when I would have cheerfully fought with and beaten the men holding me if I had still had my Vampire health. They half-carried, half-dragged me from the cell as though I were a drunk they’d found passed out in the street. There was a feeling of powerlessness in my mortality that I hadn’t expected, and I wondered if all men felt this or if I was particularly susceptible due to my change in status. It bore consideration at a time when I wasn’t being unceremoniously bumped and jostled to an unknown destination.

“They really do go out cold, don’t they?” This Monger sounded younger than the others. He gripped me under my right shoulder, and it was just tentative enough that I sensed his fear of me.

The Monger at my left shoulder was the gruff one who had threatened Tam. His grip was much harder than it needed to be, and he suddenly pinched the tender skin under my bicep. It was everything I could do not to hurl a punch.

“You could probably cut his throat and he wouldn’t react,” the gruff one said. I could hear the cruelty in his tone, and I thought the younger one could too, because he shivered.

“You wouldn’t want to get his blood on you though. That’s what the boss said. If there was blood we had to stay away because it’s so contagious.”

“You ever think about why the boss is keeping him?” the gruff one asked.

“We’re not paid to think,” the one who wasn’t part of the carry team said. He was behind the other two, which meant he could see my face, though the beam of his torch wasn’t trained on me.

“Seriously, though. Why keep a highly contagious Sucker unless you want his blood for something?” The gruff one was spinning conspiracy theories, but it was something I’d considered as well.

“You think he wants to weaponize it?” the young one asked.

“No. That would be stupid. Why turn people into something you can’t kill? Nah, I think it might be the opposite – make an army of soldiers who can’t die.” For all his nastiness, the gruff one wasn’t a complete idiot.

“Shut up, both of you,” said the one at the rear.

“But what if the soldiers didn’t want to be Suckers? Or what if they turned on him after they were infected? No one can control Vamps – they’re too strong.” The young one’s fear made him tremble.

“Or what if …” the gruff one spoke in low tones meant only for the young one, “he wants the blood so he can be immortal. I was there when that kid jumped him after the bombing down at Holborn. I heard what he said to him right before. He said he never expected a bastard bloodsucker to become so useful to him. ‘Course after that he told us to shoot the kid, because he was a terrorist after all …” The gruff voice faded, as if he wasn’t quite sure about the terrorist part of his own statement.

My mind raced furiously. Walters had said Tom was part of his plan, but he was now keeping me on ice, so to speak, in an underground cell. Could he be planning to infect himself? That seemed ridiculous considering the limitations of daylight and sustenance a Vampire necessarily had, but until I understood Walters’ plan, I had to consider even the most ludicrous options.

We turned a corner and a door slammed open. “What the hell?” Seth Walters’ voice sent a surge of anger through me, and I had to force every muscle in my body to remain utterly limp.

“Sorry, sir. You said to bring him right away.”

His sigh of frustration made me absurdly happy. “Fine. Put it on the table and strap it down.”

It? Charming.

“Who is that?” a feminine voice asked. I’d heard the voice before.

The men heaved me onto a metal table. I did not want to be strapped down, but in my current physical condition, I doubted I could prevail against three armed Mongers. The powerless feeling was magnified as the men strapped both wrists and ankles with zip ties.

“Nothing that concerns you, niece.”

Walters’ niece, Raven. I could sense her eyes on me, and her hesitation. She couldn’t know who I was, as she’d never seen me in person, but perhaps she’d heard of me.

The gruff Monger finished with the last zip tie and then flicked my nose like a schoolyard bully as he walked away. Raven gasped, and that surprised me more than the flick did. Sympathy from a Monger? That was new.

The door closed, but the silence remained. Walters finally broke it with impatience. “Finish what you wanted to say. He can’t hear you.”

She hesitated a moment longer, then finally took a breath. “I’m not going back to that school.”

“It wasn’t a request, Raven.” Walters sounded angry. There was a knock at the door, and his voice was aggressive and frustrated. “Come!”

The door opened, and Walters’ tone became businesslike. “You brought everything you need?”

“Yes, sir,” a man’s voice said.

“Good. I need two liters. See that you don’t contaminate it.”

“Sir, one unit – half a liter – is the usual donation. He probably only has five or six liters in him.”

“I said two liters.” Walters didn’t wait for confirmation. “Jaeger, stay in here with the doctor. I’m going to walk my niece out.”

I heard Jaeger enter, but Raven wasn’t finished. “You can’t make me go back, Seth.”

“Can’t I?” he sneered. “I know about your mongrel boyfriend. I could have taken him twice, but I was hoping you’d come to your senses before I had to.” He paused to let that sink in, and I thought I heard a tiny intake of breath from Raven. He continued with even more menace. “If you go back there with him, they’ll let you in to save his life. And be very clear, Raven. If you get into that school and do exactly as I tell you, you will be saving his life.”

He must have taken her arm, because they moved toward the door. She was so angry her voice choked back tears. “Mother won’t let you do this!” she snarled at him.

Walters’ voice was saccharine. “My sister-in-law brought this on herself when she left St. Brigid’s, and in fact, she’ll do exactly as I say. You all will.” His voice cut off when he kicked the door shut behind him, but not before I heard him mutter, “One way or another.”

A band tightened around my upper arm, and I felt the doctor tap inside my elbow. “Two pints is too much,” the doctor said to Jaeger.

“Do what the boss said,” he answered in a bored voice.

The needle went in, and I wondered idly if Walters would actually test my blood before he used it.