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I was hosed down like an animal, and then wheeled back to urney, and carelessly dropped me into that box where I was condemned to spend my days The coffinlike box with the lid that sealed from without The place where I would lie, trapped and suffocating, until they saw fit to let uely did I realize as they shifted me into this tomb, that it was not dawn Nor even near to dawn It was still fully night, and the slumber wouldn&039;t fall upon me for several hours yet Surely the chains on the ere preferable to being trapped in this box!
"Please," I said to the tho lowered ht yet" My words were thick and slurring together And I was still weak fro the residual cra from my enforced labor
They did not answer me Just lowered me into that box, and reached for the lid
"No!" I tried to pullinsealed inside the tiny casket I couldn&039;t bear it I wouldn&039;t! It nition that made me feel this panic, but whatever the source, I felt it, and I fought
But it was little use One orderly, a burly man in white, held me down as I kicked and clahile the second easily pushed the lid into place I screamed I howled and pushed at the heavy, perhaps lead-lined lid that heldI heard the without Heard the bolts they inserted to keep the lid down tight And eventually, I stilled I would have curled up into a tiny fetal ball if the space ide enough to allow it But as it was I could only lie flat in the darkness, with the ceiling only inches abovethe walls on either side of me I pressed my hands to my flat belly, empty now of the child I&039;d cherished all these months, and I wept bitter tears, until it seeh air I couldn&039;t move I could only lie there in the pitch-black closeness, feeling the heat of that cra in on me With my heart, my mind, I felt my child&039;s presence I knew she was nearbut that faded a short while later My sense of her greeaker, until it vanished entirely Why I was so aware of her, I did not know I&039;d felt her crying for me, and I&039;d known she was comforted in someone&039;s arms I&039;d sensed when she rapped in a warm blanket, and when she&039;d fallen into a contented sleep And I kne, as surely as I knew my own name, that she&039;d been taken froer reach her And the tears I had thought were used up, renewed themselves, and spilled from my eyes
I slowly realized the awful truth These people had used me And their use for er And I kneith an instinct that struckfear, that the lid of this coffin was never going to open again
How long, I wondered, would it take for me to die?
The white lab coat had belonged to thespace in the darkest corner of a supply roo Jameson knew this was not a foolproof plan, but not entirely a bad one either He could read their thoughts He&039;d knohich of them were suspicious of hih the corridors of the fourth subterranean level of DPI headquarters in White Plains The last place any of the of his own accord He kneell enough that the captives were kept below ground level, and the more important the prisoner, the deeper he would be found Like a living burial, life in this hole He pushed a stainless-steel cart full of instruloves, and he stopped on occasion to flip open the chart he&039;d stolen, and gaze thoughtfully at the gibberish scrawled there All to add flavor to his charade An extra white lab coat, and surgical mask and cap were tucked inside the coat he wore And he knew from the blueprints he&039;d pilfered that there was a rear exit used only to remove the remains of those who died in captivity here An elevator that went directly to that exit And a large blast furnace in the room that elevator opened into A cre woaze on him, her approval of his appearance, the initial flare of attraction, and he turned to her, saw her glancing back at hih her silken blond hair, andher cover-model lips "Excuse me, maybe you can help," he said "I&039;m a little bit lost"
Her s he&039;d ask her to meet him after her shift She was a lab technician, an up-and-comer, very talented And utterly withoutonly briefly to the ID tag on his chest Seeing it dangling there was all the confirmation she required She was a beautiful fool "What are you looking for?"
" The uh-" He glanced around,full well that not everyone here would be privy to the , noted her security clearance was one of the highest and nodded "The new mother?" The woman frowned, and a bit of suspicion rose in her hts plainly Why would he be visiting that one? She&039;s probably dead by now, anyway
"I&039;m supposed to take a few samples, and then move the remains down to forensics," he added quickly
"Oh" The suspicion left her pretty face "One level down, isolation cell 516-S"
"Thanks"
She was thinking ht to mention this man&039;shis most brilliant smile, yet careful to conceal the telltale tips of his incisors "Say, what tileareen cat&039;s eyes "Why?" Jah he&039;d never used theas the mortal in question didn&039;t resist And he sensed no resistance or fear in this one He&039;d seen Eric do it The trick took practice, and he hadn&039;t hadthe actions of oneabout
Aloud, he said, "Why don&039;t you o out for drinksor soer "That sounds nice," she said
"Great" He turned and headed down the hall to the elevators He passed several others, but none of theht, whoever she as in all likelihood dead, according to the pretty technician Why was she still here then? And would he find the child, as he&039;d expected he would? He&039;d thought they&039;d be together, sharing a cell at the very least Now, he wasn&039;t so sure
Sublevel five was like a dungeon And it was only seconds before Jaht the vampires when their use for them had ended This here the undead were left to die
The second death The final one This level was encased in concrete, and painted a dark green, like a baseue in a hospital Each tiny cell had a door, and all the doors were sealed And he could smell the stench of death heavy in the air
He reached the door with the correct nuuards on this level Apparently, they assuripped the door handle, and it ith only a th that he pulled it open, breaking the locks in the process
He stepped inside, and caught his breath In the far corner of the tomblike roous Six inches thick No baby in sight, and thankfully, no tinier, infant-sized deathtrap sat nearby He&039;d thought to find the child with her mother He&039;d obviously been mistaken And if she were dead already, the woht be Even if she were alive, he realized, heart sinking, shecloser, Ja whine of it The sound was like a cry, and it echoed endlessly in this rooh he sensed there was a layer of lead within it This one was bolted shut, but he snapped the bolts like twigs, and wrenched the lid from the casket
In the pitch-darkness, his eyes were as sharp as those of a cat And she lay there, still and white, the sharp bones of her face protruding into her pale skin Her hair spread around her in tangles And he stared down at her in utter shock, and whispered, "You!"
Her eyes opened, their violet light so dulled he barely recognized it there "Please" she whispered, parched lips barelyto form the words "Mychild"
Why she made the effort to speak the words aloud when it was so difficult for her, he could not fathohts to him much more easily Her Why the hell did it have to be her? What twist of fate had brought this ridiculous irony about?
"Where is the child?" he de her when she would have faded into slumber "Where?"
She parted her lips, but only a low ain, and she blinked up at him "Theytook my baby they took her"
"Took her where, daer in his voice And then she stared up at hi hih, scanning his face
"No thanks to you Now, da her lips, she shook her head "Ithey&039;ve taken heraway fro?"
She shook her head
"And you&039;ve no idea where she is?"
"No"
Ja away froroaned "Don&039;tleave hed, a low, bitter sound that echoed froain "You want me to help you? Me, your victim, the mortal man you did your best to murder? Why the hell should I? You tried to kill me, lady You drained me and left me for dead, and then you turned yourself over to these bastards It&039;s your fault they&039;ve got their hands on hter?&039;"
Ja and stepped closer to stare down at the pathetic, yet somehow still beautiful woman, as too weak even to sit up on her own "Yes," he said softly "My daughter I was once a prisoner here, just as you are now And it was irl
And I will find her"
She closed her eyes, drew a painful breath "Ican help you"
"How?" He didn&039;t think he believed her Hell, he wasn&039;t truly going to leave her here Wouldn&039;t leave his worst eneht he would, and she was trying to convince hi, in all likelihood
"I" She gripped the edges of the coffin, struggled to sit up And Jameson&039;s hands moved autoet this woman had once tried to ri at how thin she was, and helped her to sit up She had to cling to the wooden sides to keep herself in that position, and her head fell forward as if even holding it upright wereelsetake me out of this box" He saw the fear in her eyes when she lifted her head briefly to look around her, when she realized the box she&039;d been entoer one, made of stone "They&039;re ured that out, have you?" Jaht body into his arms and lifted her out of the box But when he lowered her feet to the floor, her legs buckled She fell against hi into a heap at his feet
He held her And doing so stirred up unpleasant memories Memories of the last time he&039;d held her this ith her face pressed to the crook of his neck Of the desire that had overwhelmed him when she&039;d put her mouth to his throat Of how much he&039;d wanted her at thatShe was, if anything, more so now He waited, tense and expectant, his ar Her body pressed tight to his And he felt her lips touch the skin of his neck, felt her soft gasp
And then she turned her head away from his neck, and rested her cheek on his shoulder
Of course She wouldn&039;t attempt to overpower another va more, surely
"Tell me," he said, "how you think you can help"There&039;sthere&039;s a link between my baby and me I felt iteven before she was born
"I kneshe&039;d look" She slipped lower in his ar toward the floor, and he was forced to hold her tighter, closer "I knew she was female I spoke to herand she heard, I know she did" Her voice was so weak But a whisper, and speaking was obviously a tremendous effort
"Of course she did," Ja a word she said
She lifted her head, met his eyes "I could feel what she felt I knehen she was here, and I are of it the instant theytook her away" Her head lowered to his shoulder again, and he knew she could hold it up no longer She was very near death right now "I&039;ll know again, e get close to her I swear to Christ, I will"
Jameson tipped her chin up with one hand and searched her eyes, wondering if she ony he saw in their violet depths And then he scanned herto findShe&039;d be shts if she hoped to fool hiuarded Completely open to him
He must take me out of this place! Yes, he&039;s a monster a horrible monster, just like the other
but even ahere I&039;ll run froet away as soon as I leave these walls behind And then I&039;ll use this psychic bond to find my child by myself I&039;ll take her away from themand away from him His kind will never lay eyes on her I&039;ll protect her from all of them And if I must feed on the innocent to do it, then so be it!
Jaer in her eyes Shocked by the power of it