Kidnapped By A Vampire

Chapter 24

THEO

My eyes fly open as something is shoved into my arm. I shove them way and yank out the needle. What the hell are they trying to do to me now? I try to sit up but a shooting pain in my abdomen keeps me on my back. I bite back a groan. They don't need to know how much pain I'm in. They won't break me. I think over and over. They come back with more of them and hold me down. They put the needle back in my arm and it takes me a moment to realize they're talking to me.

"It's okay Theo. We're just trying to help." I try to focus on the person. When my eyes adjust to the dim lighting I see it's Vlad. I relax and the others back off. So they got me out. I close my eyes.

"You guys must be crazy to go in there." I say. It must be blood they're giving me because I can feel some of my smaller wounds starting to heal.

"We were just glad to find you alive. You scared the hell out of us." Rebecca says.

"You guys weren't supposed to come in after me. The rule was if I don't give the signal you wait." Not that I could. I was so far underground I doubt they would have heard it even if they were listening."

"They called us." I look over to where I see a guy they looks an awful lot like Alexander but without all the hair. There's no way he would cut it all off.

"What the hell happened to your hair?" I ask and he gives me one of his lopsided smiles.

"Your girlfriend cut it off." That's right Arabella was with them. I think back to the phone call with her a couple days before I went in. She seemed so upset about not being able to feel bad about her parents death. I hate that she had to find out that way.

"How is she?" His smile falters. I sit up and notice for the first time that Joey's here too. "You're supposed to be protecting her. What are you dong here?" I say. He can't make eye contact with me.

"I'm not sure where she is."

"What do you mean you don't know? How can you lose her?" I move to stand but a couple of the guys move to hold me down.

"She was there with us and-"

"You let her tag along! You know how she is! How stupid can you be!" I can't believe he let her get in the middle of all this. She has a terrible habit of sacrificing herself for others. He knew that. I made sure he knew that so he would keep a closer eye on her.

"Look, she's the only reason we got you out." Vlad cuts in. "We were going to have to come back but she created a distraction that allowed us to sneak in." I shove the others away from me and stand. I have to grab the table I was sitting on as the world spins. Of course she did.

"Where is the last place you saw her?" I ask. We have to go back to get her. She must still be there that's the only explanation.

"She was talking to the guards." Rebecca says when no one else answers me. "She should be fine. I don't think they knew she was a vampire." That's the last I saw of her. Then they probably just sent her away.

"Actually." Danny says moving closer. "I saw them take her inside." I pull the IV out. Then I need to go back for her. They must still have her there. Joey places a hand on my shoulder and easily pushes me back down on the table.

"We have to go back. We can't leave her there." He shakes his head.

"We barely got you out." The door suddenly bursts open. Everyone growls as a soldier walks into the room. They're covered in blood and are clutching a bag.

"Don't move." Vlad says.

"Please don't hold another knife to my neck. I'm getting so tired of that." Her legs collapse and Vlad and Alexander move to help hold her up. She turns and smiles at Alexander. "Thanks for getting him out." Her eyes scan the room before they land on me. They move to sit her next to me. I pull her into my arms. Good she's alive. I don't know what I would do if she had died to save me. I gently lay her down on the table and give her the Iv instead. The longer I look at her the worse she looks. I can't even tell how much of the blood is hers.

"Everyone clear the room except Joey and Alex." I say. Arabella smiles at me.

"I'm so glad you're okay." She turns her head to the side and I flinch when I see a huge gash on the side of her face. It looks like it went down to the bone. Crap she needs more than an IV. I hold my wrist under her nose. She flinches away gasping. "No! I won't do it again."

"Here. You don't need to give anymore blood." Joey says rolling up his sleeve. He's the only other person I told about what happened when we were captured the first time. Arabella shakes her head again. "Come on. You need it. Besides the others are here to stop you, okay?" She reluctantly bites into his wrist.

Joey pulls away a few moments later and I turn her head to the side to inspect the cut. It hasn't healed much. I need to get her out of these clothes so I can see where else she's hurt. She took a lot of his blood. It should be healed already, which means she must have a lot more injuries than I originally thought.

"Help me get this shirt off." I say to them as I hold her up. Arabella isn't looking at us but staring off at the wall. I move to grab the bag she's been clutching.

"No!" She jerks away and cries out in pain.

"Hey, it's me." I say brushing her hair out of her face. Her eyes focus on me and she releases her grip on the bag. I set it on the floor and hold her up while Joey and Alexander cut off the shirt. Her arms have a couple of wounds that are almost completely healed. It looks like she was grazed by some bullets. But on the left side of her torso is another deep cut that travels from her stomach to her chest. It's not as deep as the one on her face but I think the blood on the uniform is all hers. All that blood she took was working to heal this "How did you make it back here?" I whisper. Alexander puts his wrist in front of her and she takes it without hesitation this time.

"It looks like there's another cut." Joey says as he cuts off her pants as well. Sure enough there's a piece of metal sticking out of her thigh and some bullet holes in her other thigh. I can't believe I let this happen to her. It's a wonder she made it this far. What the hell was so worth it? I reach down for the bag and open it. Inside there's a bunch of files. I open a couple and just find pictures of two people in each with a bunch of notes scribbled. I open the next file and a shiver runs down my spin. On one side is a picture of me and Arabella on the other side.

"What the hell?" I read the scribbled notes and compare them to a couple more files. It looks like in every pair there's a human and a vampire. These are detailed records of some of the couples they tortured down in that dungeon. As I look back at the files most of them all have red x's over the pictures. A couple of them don't and Arabella's has a huge question mark on hers. What is this? Joey takes a file off the table and Alexander reads it over his shoulder. Arabella stops drinking.

"We were wrong." She says. "He wasn't torturing us because he was bitter. They were trying to awaken something." She points to the bag. When I hand it to her she pulls out another file. "They think that if you take a human and turn them, under the right circumstances, it'll awaken some kind of power in them." She hands me the file and I scan the notes quickly. Those without X's on them, I think it worked. The others are dead." She states

"This is just crazy. No way this is a real thing." Joey says tossing the file on the table. A look of fear crosses Arabella's face. She's not telling me something, but she looks so tired I can't bring myself to force it out of her.

"Come on let's get these wounds bandaged up. Then we can get you some more blood." She grips my arm tightly grunting as Joey tightly wraps her leg and torso, and Alexander bandages her face. I watch the Iv drip as she lays her head in my lap. Vlad comes in with another for me.

"I found him." She whispers.

"Who?" I ask kissing her forehead.

"Their leader."