☬ P R O L O G U E ☬
The entire room smelled like piss. The windows had been barred with plywood and duct tape, and untold days of human waste and filth stained the floorboards.
It seemed fitting that he would find her in a place like this -- a crack den -- on the outskirts of town. She was a defense attorney, after all -- when your job revolved around the behavior of scumbags, thinking like them became second nature.
“Which one is she?” he demanded of the man beside him, who made a show of pinching his own nose shut.
“That one--” Thierry pointed in the direction of a soiled mattress, on top of which rested four, emaciated bodies.
Cole’s eyes seemed to hone in on her, even before he noticed the faint scent clinging to her frame. It was like a virtual ‘homing beacon’--a mark left behind when a vampire failed to kill their prey.
This one barely seemed to have escaped her encounter with her life. Her long hair was matted with filth and draped over her torso like a makeshift, flimsy blanket.
“It’s her,” he confirmed. From the corner of his eye, he saw Thierry nod.
“At least this one’s alive,” Thierry muttered. “Maybe the bastard learned some self control in the last six months.”
“Maybe,” Cole said tightly. Though, he suspected his brother’s botched feed had more to do with carelessness than anything else. Self-control wasn’t in Theo’s vocabulary.
He moved closer, stepping carefully over mortals too strung up on their drug of choice to even realize he was there, until he reached her.
Up close, Cole had a hard time believing that she had survived the sub-zero temperatures of the current Massachusetts winter -- let alone Theo. The fact that he could hear every breath rattling in her chest was the only reason he believed she was actually alive.
He leaned down, pushing one arm beneath her knees and the other around her shoulders. She barely stirred as he lifted her up. He wasn’t accustomed to considering things ‘heavy’, but even for a human, she felt too light.
“Shit,” Thierry swore. “Her neck --”
Cole scraped her hair back from her face and felt a rare surge of anger build in his gut. He didn’t make a habit out of being alarmed -- in his day, he’d seen more blood and gore than most soldiers saw in combat -- but he still flinched at the sight of her neck.
It was like chunks of flesh had been torn from her throat. A jagged scar ran from the lobe of her ear to the curve of her shoulder, stapled together with crude surgical staples. It looked like the skin had begun to heal -- but in her current state, without a proper fix, it was never going to improve.
A strange mixture of pity and horror surged through Cole. This wasn’t a botched feed -- this was a mutilation.
“How is she still alive?” Thierry sounded horrified.
Cole shrugged.“She’s strong.”
It probably would have been easier for her if she had died. She wasn’t like the others. Many of the victims he came across were already lost--to them, vampire venom was just another in a long line of addictions.
“She’s also resourceful. It’s never taken us this long to track down a mortal,” Cole grudgingly admitted. He shot Thierry an inquiring look. “How far did she bury herself?”
“There was a missing person’s report filed by her boyfriend a few weeks ago but I took care of it. As far as we know, nobody’s looking for her -- but she can’t be seen, not like this. We already had to compel the medical examiner to lose her case files before her statements could be leaked to the press.”
“That settles it, then,” Cole sighed. “She’s our problem now.”
He hated those four words, hated what they stood for. Another lost soul to keep out of trouble -- except the life he offered them was nothing but. It was exchanging one vice for another -- a safer addiction, but an addiction nonetheless. He couldn’t fathom an existence where each waking breath was spent in anticipation of the next bite -- the next fix -- yet, even with the choice of a better life, they stayed.
Even after 400 years, he would never understand it--thankfully it wasn’t his job to.
“Take her,” he commanded, shoving her body in Thierry’s direction.
Thierry caught her reluctantly. “You’re placing her under your protection? You know he’ll come for her, Cole. He’ll see it as a challenge.”
“Good,” Cole said, his voice glazed with steel. “It’s about time he learned this is my city.”
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Mercy
General Fiction“M-mercy.” His eyes flash red and for a second, I almost believe that he’ll stop — that he’ll put an end to this. But then his lips curl into a cold smile. “Didn’t you know, Allison? There’s no mercy in hell.” ———— There’s a lot of bad blood between...
