Chapter 21

After letting Leisha stay in the cell for another day, Mason and his goons returned. The guards were the same men from yesterday. One had orange-red hair and the other had lips so thin it looked like he didn’t even have any.

Mason held up a large needle for her to see. It was twelve inches long and a quarter of an inch thick.

Mason watched her closely as he explained. “This will cause you little pain. However, I believe that inserting it through several spots in your stomach will cause your baby great agony. I’ve spent the last several hours studying the best way to do this without killing the fetus outright. So all I need to do is feel how the baby is positioned within you. We’ll bring in an ultrasound machine and then we can proceed.” He paused. “Unless you would like to tell me where my daughter is?”

Her lips felt dry. “I don’t know.” As she stared at the needle, she wondered if she would be able to conceal the information if she did know where Samantha was.

After studying her expression for a moment, Mason shook his head and gestured to the men.

Leisha had already thought this out. She knew that if they were to shoot her, it would cause her a great deal of pain. Enough that she would pull on her link to Samantha. Guilt stabbed through her at the thought of sucking away Samantha’s energy, but she hoped that would incite Samantha and Nik to look for her, if they weren’t already. It was the only way for her to send out an SOS.

She hoped that her plan would also delay Mason’s demented plan to torture her baby. So as the men approached her, she lashed out with her foot. Facing the man to her right, she kicked the gun out of his grip and pulled him towards herself, just in time for him to be shot by the redheaded man.

Her victim screamed and she threw him at Redhead, but he jumped out of the way. Since he was quick and they were in a confined space, she wouldn’t be able to fight him well. Instead, she rushed at Mason, and tried to throw him into Redhead, who was readying to fire at her again.

She missed Mason, but Redhead’s shot was dead on. As searing pain exploded in her left shoulder, she forced herself to move on. She slammed opened the door and was two steps into the corridor beyond when more pain shot through her hip. Her leg gave out and she collapsed onto the tile floor .

“Don’t kill her,” Mason shouted from the room.

Redhead roughly yanked her up and dragged her back into her cell, but she had enough time to look around. She saw that they were above ground. There was only an elevator as an exit from the hall, which was not up to fire code regulations. That meant this building was probably off the radar and didn’t need standard permits for operation, which also indicated that she probably couldn’t wait to be rescued.

Redhead got her on the metal slab and was cuffing her wrists to the bed. She was kicking him hard on his temple before Mason pinned her legs and strapped them to the bed.

“You shouldn’t be able to hold me down,” she muttered through clenched teeth.

At the comment, Mason stood tall and smiled broadly. “I know. My superiors didn’t think that I could accomplish it so quickly, but I figured out a way to infuse humans with your blood.”

She shook her head. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

His blue eyes lit up. “It was difficult, let me tell you. A year ago, we had our first successful trial on animals with vampire genes and started experimenting on humans. Most of the subjects went insane and killed the majority of the doctors overseeing the experiments. I had some scars myself.” He rubbed his stomach. “Luckily, they are completely healed, thanks to you.” He gave her a pointed stare. “So far, your blood is the only sample able to see us through the transition. All the others we drained were a complete disaster.”

Leisha had been one of many vampires taken last year to be experimented on. However, she was the only one who escaped. Eyebrows drawing together in confusion, she suddenly felt cold. What made her so special?

As if reading her mind, Mason said, “Your blood has an extra chromosome that the others don’t have. I believe this is what enables you to withstand sunlight when the others can’t.”

Hoping to distract him, she continued the conversation. “Can you guys go out in the sun?” she asked, her curiosity peeked.

He teetered his hand through the air. “Sort of. We can, but the sun weakens us, so we’re basically like normal humans in the daytime. At night, we’re almost as fast and as strong as you are.”

Lifting her eyebrow, she clarified. “Almost, but still you’re not one of us.”

“Thank the good Lord for that,” muttered Redhead.

Mason nodded. “True. While we do need to have small infusions of blood via injection every once in a while to sustain us, we don’t actually have to drink blood all the time like you do.” He paused. “We also have lost our ability for scent and taste.” He looked up with a quizzical expression. “Is that why it’s so easy for you to drink blood? Because you can’t really taste it anyway?”

That was interesting. Leisha wasn’t sure how useful that information was to her, but stored it away and shrugged her shoulders. No way was she going to tell him that vampires had heightened senses. If he hadn’t discovered it in his “research”, that was his problem.

With a little testing, she could tell that the constraints would hold her down pretty well. She could possibly try to break through them, but she would need blood to restore her strength afterwards, and couldn’t bring herself to draw so much on Samantha’s energy.

She had stopped bleeding. Leisha could feel the bullet still in her hip. The one in her shoulder had exited out the other side. The bullet in her hip would need to be removed since it would recurrently damage tissue then heal again.

Rolling his shoulders, Mason pushed a button on the wall with his thumb. It scanned his print before opening a panel. He retrieved tweezers and a scalpel. “This wasn’t the form of torture I was preparing for today, but we can take care of that bullet before we get to the main event.”

Pulling her pants down to her knees, he dug right in.

Biting her lip to keep herself from screaming, she forced herself to see what he was doing to make sure there was no foul play.

She had to give the man props for efficiency. He cut straight to the bullet and used the tweezers to yank it out in no time. He didn’t bother to staunch the bleeding, nor had he sterilized anything before he had begun.

Mason left the room, but returned a few minutes later with his hands cleaned up. “Now we can get on to the real reason why I’m here.”

He went back to the panel and pulled out the thick needle.

Heart rate picking up speed, Leisha’s mind raced. She had more strength in her legs than her arms, so maybe if she freed her feet and defended herself that way… no, it wouldn’t work fast enough to prevent the redhead from keeping her pinned.

Mason was getting closer, his eyes focusing on her stomach. Once he reached her side, he pulled up her shirt. As her belly was bared, she felt a ripple of the baby’s movement that could be seen under the skin, as if he were pushing an elbow out along her stomach.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Redhead grow pale. At least he had some kind of conscience. Mason showed no reaction. He put his empty hand over her belly and felt around. “I think we can do this without the ultrasound,” he muttered.

After a few minutes of probing, he lifted his needle.

“I swear I don’t know where they are,” Leisha burst. She could feel perspiration beading up along her brow and upper lip. She hated herself for breaking, but it was her baby. She flashed back to when Ptah threatened her daughter, Adanne, so he could convince Leisha to become a vampire. It hadn’t taken long before she’d broken under that pressure as well.

“Please,” she whispered. “You must know that I’m telling you the truth by now.”

Ignoring her plea, Mason aimed the needle at her side and towards the baby. Leisha feared it would impale her child completely.

“Stop!” she screamed. “I don’t know, I swear on my child’s life!”

With a steady hand, Mason pierced her skin. She sobbed for her baby more than at the pain. Leisha wasn’t sure if she should hold completely still or try to struggle.

The needle was slowly pushing deeper into her stomach. Leisha was about to start squirming when she heard a subtle sound that she wasn’t sure the others had heard.

“What the—” Mason cut off as he looked down at his procedure. “It won’t go any farther.” He pulled the instrument out.

Gasping at the searing pain, Leisha looked down at a large chunk of her flesh that had been ripped out with the needle.

The needle was no longer straight. It looked like someone had bent it backward.

Shuddering, Leisha glanced at her belly. She wasn’t sure how an unborn child could do something like that, but was relieved.

Shaking his head, Mason opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the buzz of his cell phone. Sighing, he pulled it out and looked at the screen. “Looks like you were saved by the bell,” he muttered before answering the phone. “Hang on a minute. I need to get to a more secure location.” His skin appeared a little pale as he turned to Leisha and removed the phone. “Don’t think this is over. I will find a way get the answers I want.” He nodded to Redhead, who promptly picked up his unconscious companion and followed Mason out the door.

Once she heard the door click, Leisha closed her eyes. Mason was a brilliant man with unlimited resources. He would figure out a way, and it would probably be incredibly painful. She had to get away before that happened.