Tainted Blood (Book 2)

1. Very Bad Luck

“We’ve known what you are for a long time.” Virginia watched the man in the black suit pace in front of the glass. It was Lycan proof. She tried breaking through it first thing.

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.” She was having trouble making out details, she recognized the voice though. He had visited her before now. She had been there for roughly three days, or so she assumed. She hadn’t seen the sun or the moon since then. She was relying on her wolf’s connection to the moon, which was starting to loose grip. She tried not to show that the drugs were bothering her sight. They had given up all hope in hand tranquilizing her after she drained and ate part of the last person they sent in. She was hungry, and they hadn’t fed her in a day and a half. They shot her now, with tranquilizer darts from a little hole in the wall. Everything was stark white, smooth flat lines. It was almost as if everything melded together into one cohesive, blindingly, boring room. Even the cotton pants and t-shirt she wore were stark white. It was unsettling. She blinked hard again, gaining a little more clarity for a moment before losing it again. She guessed that whatever they had shot her with was a milder version of what had brought her down in the house.

“Your husband confirmed what we already knew the night you disappeared with Olivia.” Virginia grunted and began pacing. When an animal paces, it’s a sign of madness, she thought to herself.

“You know Chad worked for me.” She stopped moving.

“I didn’t actually,” she said. She had thought he just worked in some office. He hadn’t been very keen on allowing her any freedom to know anything about his life outside the house. She squinted at the man. She hadn’t had to squint since before she was turned over twenty years prior.

“How do you think he found you? We helped him locate your approximate position.” He sounded like government. She had a chilling thought, what if they had gotten Cain and Abel?

“Is that so?”

“We can’t find his body though,” he said as he leaned against the far wall, across from the grass.

“You probably won’t.”

“So I should believe what Cain and Abel say? That they drank and ate him?” Virginia stilled, they had the two of them, and her as well. The three most powerful beings on the planet all trapped like mice under one roof. Or at least she assumed one roof.

“You’re free to believe whatever you want. It’s a free country. Well,” she paused with a smirk, “Unless of course you’re a supe, a minority, or a woman. You rich white human men got it pretty good huh?” He ignored her.

 “Abel said he drained him slowly, and Cain said he ate him. Got those boys wrapped around your finger don’t you?”

“They do as they see fit.”

"How does a girl from Wisconsin rise through the ranks to become equals with the first vampire and the first werewolf?”

“Bad luck,” Virginia said as she leaned against the glass, “Very bad luck.” The man chuckled.

“I suppose you’re right.” A dart hit her thigh. It took only seconds before her heart pumped the drug through her system. She fought to not collapse under the weight of it. This was the stuff they hit her with at the house.

“You know my favorite part about werewolves?” the man asked as he stepped into the room through the side door, “You all heal so quickly that we can rip you apart and study you over and over again.” Virginia’s legs went to jello and she hit the floor hard.

“Lycan,” she slurred.

“What?” he crouched next to her.

“Lycan,” she repeated. She inhaled, trying to get an idea of what he smelled like, her nose didn’t want to work with her. It was like he smelled like nothing, “I’m a fucking Lycan. Don’t you ever call me a werewolf.”

“Oh! I’m terribly sorry,” he feigned embarrassment. She felt herself being lifted up and put on a metal rolling table. She closed her eyes and allowed the heavy cloud that the sedative held over her to settle. She slipped out of consciousness and dreamt of Olivia and herself running together as wolves.

“Take her past them,” Cornelius ordered the guards as they strapped her down to the table. He noted that the silver cuffs on the table didn’t burn her. He straightened his tie and took in a deep breath, composing himself. He severely disliked her. More than any of the others they had captured. There was just something about her cocky nature that made him want to do all sorts of nasty tortuous things to her.

“Both of them? That’s kind of out of the way,” one of the men said to him. He stared at the guard, who instantly dropped his eyes to the ground.

"I know that. I wouldn’t tell you to do it unless I wanted you to do it.” The guard nodded and began rolling her out with the other guard. He straightened and followed them. He glanced at himself in reflective surfaces as they passed them. His hair was cropped short, only about an inch and a half of growth was there. His skin was pale, almost similar to the vampires he held in the cages. He was decently built, but the military does that to people. He found himself relatively attractive, most women did. However, the ache that spread from his shoulder down to his lower back reminded him that his skin wasn’t unmarred. There was a scar that ached in the presence of dominant wolves. He was mauled by a werewolf when he was twenty, just four years ago. He had been lucky enough that some passersby had stopped to help him. But he knew, he could feel it in the ache, that some of their tainted magic had entered his body and latch onto his very being.

“What did you do to her?” Cain came rushing toward his glass as they slowly rolled her past his room.

“Nothing,” Cornelius said, “Yet.” Cain slammed his fists against the glass and snarled at him. He nodded the guards forward with a smile. He gave Cain a short wave as they turned the corner. He sped up so he could walk next to the metal table. He looked down at her. She barely looked older than twenty-one, but her file said she had been born in the early nineties. Her dark curly hair was wild around her head. Her cheekbones stuck out from her face, casting shadows across her cheeks. He felt a twinge of attraction for her. He shook himself mentally and tried to pull his eyes away before they could travel down the rest of her body. He could see tattoos showing through the white cotton of her shirt and pants. He tried not to let the guards catch him staring at her body.

“If it was morning, I’d call that morning wood. But since it isn’t,” Abel said from his bed. He was lounging back against the pillows reading a book. He seemed completely uninterested in Virginia.

“Excuse me?” Cornelius asked Abel. Abel raised an eyebrow and glanced down at Cornelius’ crotch. He side stepped so the table was hiding his erection from the guards.

“Don’t you care what we’ll do with her?” Cornelius asked as he rested his hand on her lower abdomen. Abel’s eyes rested on his hand.

“She’s a big girl,” Abel said as he tore his eyes from her and rested them back on the page in front of him.

“Your brother seemed more concerned for her safety than you do.” Abel lifted his eyes away from the page and stared at the wall. He wore a look of annoyance.

“My brother has never been very smart,” Abel said. Cornelius nodded the guards toward the examination room.

"I assume that you’re not worried because you have to blood bond to her and can tell when she’s in pain,” Cornelius said as the guards rolled her away. Abel looked at the boy standing in front of him. Who had told him that? “Shall we see how much pain you can tolerate?”

“Don’t you hurt her,” Abel hissed. His fangs caught on his bottom lip, opening it. Blood ran down his chin in two thin lines. Cornelius laughed, clutching his chest.

“Oh,” he said as he sucked in breath, “You have no idea what I’m going to do to her.” Abel began screaming at him as Cornelius walked away. He felt some satisfaction at riling up Abel. No one had been able to shake him thus far.