Chapter 15

 

Harper

What happened? I looked around and realized that I was hanging upside down, being held by my seatbelt; I must have lost consciousness when we crashed. I looked over for Reid but he was gone; I hoped he was okay. I could feel a blinding pain radiating from my head, shoulder, and nose; I tried to unclip my seatbelt, but it was hard because my shoulder no longer appeared to be in its socket, apparently dislocated. I heard a man laughing outside the vehicle and for a split second I contemplated calling out, but remembered that this was done on purpose and whoever had slammed into us was probably out there. My head was pounding but I decided to try and latch onto my attacker’s mind, whoever he was.

Love the smell of fear and blood. I hope they aren’t dead because I’m starving; plus, Tee said the woman is hot, and I’m dying to play a little.

It was vampires, and I could sense at least three. I had to get out of there. I finally managed to unclip my seatbelt, but I went crashing down onto the windshield. It took everything in me not to cry out from the pain.

“Are you awake, little girl?” I heard one man ask sinisterly. “Don’t worry, we will get you out, but you might not like what’s going to happen after.” He laughed, sending a chill down my spine. They were obviously targeting us; someone from the club must have called them. I tried to latch onto Reid’s thoughts, but all of a sudden I was being dragged out of the vehicle and tossed onto the street. I cried out from the glass cutting my skin as my body was dragged over it.

“Shut the fuck up!” a large, burly vampire growled, showing his fangs. “Grab the vamp, wherever he is,” he screamed at two other vampires, who quickly checked our totaled SUV.

“He isn’t here,” another red-haired vamp called back.

“Fuck! Find him alive!” the burly man screamed, now dragging me painfully down a stretch of road. I tried to tap into his mind but couldn’t focus…I was in too much pain. I contemplated freezing the asshole in place, but I wasn’t sure if I could run away with the other two so close; they’d easily out run me.

He stopped abruptly, crouching down with his weight bearing down on my shoulders. I could feel his hot breath on my face and I felt nauseous. He looked so young; couldn’t be any older than twenty. This must be one of the members of the young vampires they’d mentioned at the club.

“Where’s your friend?” he yelled, pushing more weight onto my shoulders.

“I don’t know where he is, and even if I did know I wouldn’t tell you!” I croaked before he backhanded me across the face.

“Tell me where he is!”

When I didn’t answer he picked me up and threw me across the pavement. I cried out in pain, feeling the burn of the road rash on my face and back. He casually walked over and pulled my SECA badge out of my jacket pocket, reading it over carefully. Tee never mentioned they were agents. She isn’t a werewolf or vamp, so she must be a mage. I’ve never had a mage before. Pity, she was probably attractive before I messed up her face so bad. Oh well! Everything below the neck still looks just fine.

“Where is your partner, ‘Agent Andrews’?” He asked slowly, unbuttoning my blouse and exposing my breast to the cold winter air. “Maybe if we got better acquainted you’d be more willing to talk.”

I looked around, not seeing either of the other men; they must be looking for Reid. I couldn’t wait anymore; I had to make my move, because this guy wanted to do horrible things to me.

“I would stop what you’re doing now or you won’t live long enough to regret it,” I threatened.

“You’re lovely, and so cute trying to threaten me.” He laughed, running his index finger along my bra. “I can’t figure out if I want to bite you or fuck you first. Decisions, decisions.” I tapped into his mind, freezing him in place. You should have listened. I laughed in his mind, watching his horror stricken face.

I slowly crept out from under him and tried to latch onto Reid’s mind again, but I couldn’t find him. I prayed he was okay, but right now I needed help. I walked to the vehicle and radioed into dispatch. “Need backup west on Flushing Avenue. I have one suspect in custody and two more in area; one agent injured and one agent missing. I repeat, backup needed west on Flushing Avenue.”

“What the hell is going on?” One of the other vampires yelled, grabbing me by the throat and slamming me against the concrete again. “What did you do to Ted?” He yelled again, eyeing his frozen friend. “And where is Marty?” I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but his hand was now pushing so hard on my windpipe that I could barely breathe. I could feel myself losing consciousness. I tried to hold on and keep this Ted person frozen, but the lack of oxygen was breaking my focus and I could feel it fading; if this kept up he would be out of his frozen state any moment now. The black spots in my vision got bigger and my head suddenly felt abnormally light.

I felt my attacker’s hands lift from my throat. “What the hell are you, bitch?” A man screamed, slamming his fist into my face. I could tell from the voice that it was Ted but it was too late. I was done and already slipping into a dark fog.

He growled angrily, probably readying himself to hit me again, but suddenly I heard screaming. I tried to open my eyes but all I could see was a blurry figure that looked like Reid covered in blood. There was a loud snap before everything went black.

**** *** ****

Harper

“Harper…Harper. I need you to drink this,” I heard Reid say. “Harper, drink this, okay? It will taste weird but trust me, it will help you.” I tried to open my eyes but I couldn’t…everything hurt so badly. I managed to open my mouth and I felt a light stream of warm, thick liquid coating my mouth. Based on the iron taste it left, I presumed it was blood. Why the hell would he be giving me blood? I kept drinking until he pulled away. After a few minutes I felt a little stronger and managed to open my eyes. Reid was crouched beside me, watching me, his face riddled with anxiety. “Are you okay Harper?”

“Yeah, everything hurts still, but not as bad as before,” I answered, hearing sirens in the distance. “Did you give me blood?” I asked, already knowing the answer but needing to hear it.

“Yes, I gave you my blood,” he answered, carefully helping me up. “It will help you heal faster, and given your injuries we were sort of on too much of a time crunch to wait for paramedics.” He looked a little uncomfortable.

“I think that’s frowned upon by the Agency, isn’t it?” I joked while he helped me sit down on the curb on the side of the road.

“Yes, it is.”

“Well, thank you. I seriously don’t know how you drink that stuff though. It’s awful,” I replied, wiping my mouth, which sent him into a fit of laughter.

“Yeah, it has a different draw once you turn vamp.”

“I won’t become a vampire, right?” I asked, knowing full well that it would take more than that little amount of blood to do that, but I needed the reassurance.

“No Harper, you won’t become a vampire.” He smiled. “I’d have to drain you and then have you drink a very large quantity of my blood. So you’ll be fine.”

“Wouldn’t that leave you at risk, though? To give someone that much of your own blood?”

“Yes, it’s always a risk to try and turn someone, especially since a lot of the time it doesn’t work anyway. So that’s why it isn’t something we are supposed to take lightly.”

“Good thing you can pretty much drink any kind of blood then.”

“Well, almost any kind; anything is on the menu but werewolf blood. But who would want to drink that shit?” He said, crinkling his nose in disgust, making me laugh at how young he looked.

I was quickly drawn back to reality when agents and paramedics were rushing towards us. “Are the both of you okay?” One of them asked.

Reid helped me to my feet. “I’m fine. I had to give her a small amount of my blood but she will require more of her own blood type and some medical attention.” The agent looked at him disapprovingly, but nodded before letting the paramedics take me.

**** *** ****

Reid

The paramedics brought Harper to the Agency’s hospital, where she was given some blood and a full examination. My blood sped her healing up, but the doctors were not pleased about it. Regardless, she was out of danger and it didn’t take long for her to be discharged just in time for the immediate debrief the director wanted, which I was sure was not going to be pleasant because he was mad as hell.

“What happened?” He demanded as we walked into the room; his anger caused the room pressure to spike from his energy. Ed was not someone you wanted to cross…I knew this from experience.

Harper jumped in before I could start to explain. “It wasn’t his fault. After the club we were ambushed. Someone from the club tipped them off; we had no way of knowing what was coming.”

My heart squeezed with appreciation; she was defending me. Given everything that had gone on lately I was surprised that she put herself out there so freely. “Do we know who they were? Who sent them? And how in the hell did you get so beat up, Agent Andrews, to the point that Agent Doyle thought it was appropriate to break protocol and have you drink his blood?” The director screamed at her, causing her to flinch.

“Listen director, it was three vampires, very young and new vampires, which I assume were unregistered.” I saw him confirm this with a nod. “I’m not sure who sent them…not yet anyway. As for her wounds…I regret that most of all from tonight. It should never have gotten to that point, but we were outnumbered and I needed to be strategic in my attacks.” I sighed, feeling unbelievably ashamed. I had said I would take care of her, but I couldn’t get to her in time to prevent her from being harmed.

“After the SUV got slammed into we flipped four times before we stopped. Agent Andrews was unconscious, but I quickly assessed her vitals, which were stable, so I got out of the vehicle before our attackers reached us. I saw three male vampires approaching on foot from a black BMW M3, plate number SU87 23, which was stopped a little ways away. I knew we were outnumbered but I needed to buy us some time. I quickly headed over to verify if there was anyone else in the vehicle—which there wasn’t—and that’s when I heard Harper scream. The larger of the three vampires, who we now know was Ted Brown, ordered the other two—Marty Hendricks and Kirk Powell—to find and take me in as per their orders from an unknown source. Agent Andrews managed to freeze the larger vamp in place, so I took the opportunity to take one of the searching vampires out of the equation. Agent Andrews managed to call for back-up in that time, but before long she was being cornered again by both of them, so I stepped in and took them both out. With her car accident injuries and the beating they gave her….” I paused to fight the anger I was feeling. “I had no choice but to give her blood.”

Ed seemed visibly more relaxed before letting out a sigh. “Agent Andrews, are you okay...overall? Did they hurt you in any other way?”

“Nothing that won’t heal sir,” she replied, letting him know she wouldn’t discuss it any further. I would have to talk to her later to truly make sure she was okay.

He nodded. “Did we at least learn anything that might help our case?”

“Well yeah, we did before the accident,” Harper stated confidently. “We know that Alastair knows more than he is letting on, and that Tania, his bar manager, is involved somehow and knows much more than she’s saying. We’ve also confirmed that Jastin Jenkins is involved.”

Ed’s eyes darted over to me, knowing this had instantly gotten much more serious and would only get worse. “Jastin Jenkins? You’re positive?” Ed asked uneasily, and both Harper and I nodded. “He hasn’t been on the radar for almost twenty years.”

“Yeah, afraid so,” I replied, mirroring his worry.

“Who is Jastin Jenkins?” Harper asked, confused.

“Agent Doyle will have to fill you in where Jastin is concerned. There’s a lot to talk about. Is there anything else you can think of?”

I couldn’t think of anything, but Harper seemed to have one more thing on her mind. “Well, I did hear the attacker who was named Ted referring to a ‘she’ who he called ‘T’ as the source of instructions for our attack. Perhaps ‘T’ is a nickname for Tania?”

“Interesting. Given her association with the Agency we will have Intel look into her and what she has been up to lately, as well as any possible association with your ambushers or Jastin. You two go home; there’s a new vehicle waiting out front for you. There will be agents parked outside your residences tonight until we know more.”

Ed was about to leave when I stopped him. “Director, I’m going to have Harper stay at my place tonight. She is still weak and I don’t think it would hurt to be safe.”

“That’s really not necessary, I’ll be fine.”

Ed shook his head in disagreement. “No, Agent Doyle has a point. This is the best way to ensure you’re safe so you can properly recover. Given your blood transfusion and the fact that you consumed some of his blood, you will probably be almost as good as new by tomorrow, but in the meantime this is a good idea. I’ll let you know if I find anything.” He didn’t give her the opportunity to argue, leaving the room.