Blood Rebel [COMPLETED]

Chapter Forty Two - Into the Van

Selene was caked in such a thick layer of Vampire sewage that she felt as though she were encased completely. When she flexed her fingers it cracked in tiny crusts over her knuckles.

"Don't cry this time," Xander had said before they came up into Central Control. "Don't sweat, don't spit, don't yawn, don't piss or shit. That's imperative. Do you understand?"

She remembered the way his face had contorted as he spoke; there was a determination, a strength in Xander that she had not seen when he was captive at Cadogan Place. Now he stood next to her, pressed against the walls, crouching in the shadows, of the great courtyard at Central Control and his expression was severe, his muscles taut.

Moonlight brushed over the space, highlighting the dark vans that lined up along the east side. Guards prowled the expanse of the yard, and great searchlights swept over the area in an incomprehensible rhythm, back and forth, dark and light.

Behind Selene were the blackened ruins of the area that had been affected by the fire. Already scaffolding was being assembled by chained human prisoners who worked all through the night. The metal clanging of their work penetrated the air, mingling with the gruff orders of the prison guards.

Selene looked again to the vans, and noticed that some were marked on the side with a great ampersand. Those would be the ones for Epershand. She was surprised at their number; a great fleet of them sat side by side, waiting to be filled. Their bodies were curved and low, and they looked capable of great speed. She had never seen their like. Next to them, the vans that delivered the prisoners to the Bleedings throughout the city were basic and old-fashioned.

Raised voices distracted her from her observation and she glanced over to the source of the noise. Diana had stepped into the courtyard and was giving orders to the guards.

Selene closed her eyes, feeling her cramped legs burn with the buildup of lactic acid. She couldn't stay crouched this low for much longer.

"Take her. I don't need her anymore." The voice carried on the wind and Selene's blood reacted with a pump of exceptional heat. She raised her eyes to look and saw Hector standing opposite Diana. They were not far from where she, Xander and Virgil were stooped in the shadows.

She watched as Hector dragged a bound and gagged Jackie out and dropped her at his feet. She couldn't seem to match this man to the one she had left only hours ago. It was as though his personality were spliced; she never knew quite what to expect, and when she watched him from afar she still felt fear run through her veins.

"I don't need to know where the girl is. I don't care."

'The girl'? Selene felt the phrase pinch at her, taunting her, and an uncertainty grew up in the bruises it left.

Diana shifted towards him, paying Jackie almost no heed.

"You, there." Hector beckoned one of the guards over. "Give the instruction for all the posters to be removed. Send out the word that there is no reward for her return." The guard scuttled off with movements that suggested he too was afraid of Hector Stanley.

"Does this mean?" Diana probed.

"It can mean whatever you want it to mean. But I do not need your human," he said, tipping the toe of his shoe into Jackie's back. She arched in pain as he did so.

Hector wore a long camel-coloured coat over his suit, his shoulders broad and powerful beneath it. Diana, in all her feminine muscularity, looked tiny next to him, and very undulation of her body indicated a not-so-latent sexual desire for him. Selene's breathing grew faster, rasping through her nostrils, and Xander turned to look at her, his eyes like stone. She tried to regulate it, to keep as quiet as possible.