Chapter Six

Upon stepping out of the shower, Laura felt her insides chill again and so she wrapped herself not only in a thick and irresistibly soft towel, but the plush robe hanging on the back of the door as well. There at the foot of the bed was clothing, folded neatly for her. Uneasily she looked around and saw yet another camera pointed in her direction. Immediately it slid down with the lens aimed towards the hard wood floors. So at least her captors were showing a small sense of decency.

She’d been quick to dry and dress herself but when she tried to open the door found that it was locked. So she was in her second cell. And while her surroundings were far more comfortable and pleasant, it wasn’t any less of a prison. The window to her left, affixed with steel bars, afforded her some light and a view into an outdoor garden built in the center of the home. It was small and covered in a thick layer of snow but Laura was certain that once spring rolled around it would be beautiful. There were curved arch ways going all the way around separated by thin columns of stone and reminded Laura a bit of the late Spanish architecture she’d studied in her art class last semester.

Strange.

After carefully examining her confines for any possible point of entry or exit, she had taken to walking around in circles for hours before she flopped around on the bed a bit and day dreamed; all the while the camera had not bothered to lift once in her direction. The sun made its way along the sky and soon disappeared beyond the manor. The faint tinge of blue spoke of encroaching night before her door was unlocked and the mysterious man strode in with a warm smile that reached his magnetic amber eyes.

For an abducting asshole, he certainly was handsome. It wasn’t easy to guess his age but she placed him within mid to late twenties. He had a head of rich auburn hair a few shades lighter then his eyes and softly tanned skin. He’d chosen to wear a loose fitted black sweater and clearly well worn dark denim jeans with slick black shoes. In fact he looked quite… normal. Not the way she’d picture a potentially dangerous, kidnapping and homicidal maniac.

Then again, she was not sure if she had reason to fear him since his face was not the one that plagued her every time she closed her eyes.

“I am so sorry Laura; I apologize sincerely for the long wait. If you would please follow me.” She’d carefully masked her surprise at hearing him say her name with such familiarity, almost as if they’d known one another their entire lives.

“No need to apologize. You’ve kept me this long against my will, what’s another few hours?” Her sarcastic comment had made him feel uncomfortable, that much was obvious but instead of providing an answer or a response of any kind, he simply stepped back and allowed her to pass through the door ahead of him. He’d been careful to direct her as they walked down the corridors and brought her just before a set of closed doors.

“Just wait inside here. I, along with my superiors will be in shortly. I assure you once again, you have no reason to be afraid or concerned. We really are here to help you.” For a moment they simply stood there. Laura couldn’t explain why but there was a liquid pull deep inside of her body; something squirmed under her skin. The voice purred inside her head while her blood hummed with desire. In a short and vivid moment she felt herself lunging into his arms, mouth fastened to his in a passionate kiss. Hands skimming along naked skin, bodies’ slick with sweat; his breath hot and heavy against her neck, the feel of him hard and deep within her body.

Laura was jilted back from her thoughts; the intensity of it caused her to sway where she stood, torn between the urge to make the brief fantasy a reality or to put as much distance between them as possible. Darius could see the desire in her eyes, they’d darkened ever so slightly with need and he could smell the sweetness of her arousal. A steady shiver rippled throughout his core.

“Please.” He said with some difficulty, he had to close his eyes; he couldn’t look at her least he found the temptation far too great to ignore. “Please, get inside.”

She wanted to do as he asked; knew that she should. Instead, she lifted a hand and placed it on his chest right above his heart. She felt him tremble from her touch. The sensation was incredibly erotic.

“Thank you…Darius.” Opening the doors, she slipped inside and closed them without turning back to face him. It had struck her, hard like a slap in the face. She knew his name and it had formed as easily on her tongue as any other word.

He’d never once told her his name. Yet somehow she’d simply known. But how?

“Laura?” A voice spoke meekly, thick with tears. Looking up it was to see a young woman huddled in a corner, arms wrapped around her knees and eyes red from crying. At first all Laura saw was a stunning yet pitiful young girl with a head of thick and glossy black hair cut short into a style that barely swept against her shoulders. Her eyes, intensely brown, were rimmed red from tears. It took her a moment but recognition dawned on Laura and with it came a flood of relief at no longer being alone.

“Jesus, Zahra? Zahra Alavi?” Both women ran to one another and held each other in an embrace with arms of steel. Zahra broke into full bodied sobs and Laura felt tears sting her eyes.

“What’s happening to us?” Zahra wailed. “I am so scared; I don’t know what’s going on. I want to go home.” She had been crying so hard that she’d hiccoughed through every other word.

“I know.” Laura tried to soothe her distraught friend with a soft and calm voice. “I think we’ll be allowed to leave soon. I am not sure what’s happening but it can’t be anything bad.” Easing back she wiped the tears from Zahra’s puffy cheeks. There was a different look to her Laura realized. Her nose used to be larger and more angular in shape. Now it was smaller and more attractive. Her face had lost a layer of baby fat and her wide jaw was narrow. In fact, Zahra looked rather…beautiful. She’d always found her to be cute but it seemed Zahra had become more of a woman. How had she not noticed this before? Meanwhile, Zahra surveyed Laura with equal confusion and wonder.

“When did you get braces?” Zahra whispered, her eyes fixed on Laura’s mouth.

“What? Never I…” Laura ran her tongue along her teeth to realize that they were…straight. “…I…” she released Zahra and covered her mouth with both hands. Her teeth had been slightly crooked due to a pair that had not dropped in front, instead they sat on top of her other teeth and overtime had caused the rest to fall out of alignment. However now they were perfect from what she could feel with her tongue.

“And your hair…” there was a wistful not to Zahra’s voice as she brought a hand around and ran her fingers through the mass of curls. “It’s so much longer…thicker. I know because I was always envious of your curly hair.” Laura had simply pulled it back into a ponytail after her shower and hadn’t bothered to really pay attention but now that Zahra had mentioned it, Laura realized that she was right.

“But…” Laura struggled to from any coherent sentences but the words were all jumbled in her throat. The door at her right opened; Zahra jumped to Laura’s side for both comfort and protection only to sob with relief to see the face of Saadia Naseer. Like Zahra, she was darker in complexion and coloring, but where Zahra was short Saadia was tall and her hair fell long and pin straight in shinning black locks. There were slight changes to her appearance as well from what Laura could recall, her body was lean and sculpted with muscle and curves, her face that had been awkwardly proportioned was well shaped and refined, the features now symmetrical and topped off with a pair of lips that would make even Angelina Jolie jealous. All three women were huddled together, crying and hugging each other, questions babbling from them in frantic waves which eventually ebbed from frantic to more controlled and aware. However, like Laura and Zahra, Saadia noticed the changes in each other’s appearance as well as her own.

“Does anyone know what’s going on? Why we are here?” Saadia asked while peering around them in wonder. For the first time Laura too noticed that they had been corralled into something akin to a conference room with a large and expansive dark wood table around which were eight richly covered black leather chairs. At the foot of the table was a massive LCD flat screen TV mounted on the wall, the lights were set to dim as if in preparation for a meeting soon to take place.

“No.” Zahra spoke at last. “The last thing I remember…or the last thing I think I remember was heading home from Lisa’s house. It all gets kind of foggy from there. Then I wake up in some disgusting, dingy…hovel, chained to a wall like a criminal.” She shuddered visibly. “Then I heard these…voices…” Zahra’s eyes skirted away from them as if she was torn between wanting to reveal further yet terrified to do so.

“Well I think we’ve been abducted by some deranged plastic surgeon.” Saadia piped up while planting her hands on her now very curvy hips.

Despite herself a chuckle tickled its way up from the back of her throat. “What? Why would you think that?”

“Think about it!” Saadia exclaimed. “Take a good look at us. Do you see these boobs?” She cupped both in her hands and weighed them for emphasis. “Call me crazy but I know I didn’t have these puppies a few days ago and they look so real too!” The last part of her sentence she uttered in a loud whisper.

Deranged plastic surgeons. The thought almost made Laura break into peals of laughter.

“We need answers.” Laura affirmed, trying to keep her tone firm and serious while crossing her arms before her also very well endowed chest. “There are too many holes and we can’t fill them in ourselves.”

“Well if you’d all be seated then we’ll do just that.” All three of them turned to face what Laura could only describe as the most fiercely beautiful creature she’d ever seen. Fierce, because there was this crushing wave of authority, power and strength that seemed to radiate from the dark beauty that in face and form was breathtaking. Her hair, dark and wavy fell loose as it pleased, eyes rich and deep in color and skin a pale cream with full lips, delicate chin and smooth lean curves.

She was dressed in a fitted white sweater, stone wash denim jeans and plain white leather flats; in her hand she carried a black leather bound journal.

She stood there and waited until they all did as she had bade, seating themselves together in a row along one side of the table, finding courage and comfort by sticking side by side. There was something to be said about strength in numbers. The mysterious woman strode to the head of the table with the large black screen at her back. Followed close by two men, one Laura knew to be Darius, her kind and considerate guide, and another was a man who was formidable in both height and appearance. He stood a towering six foot three, broad shouldered and muscular in build with a head of long pin straight silver blonde hair that would make any woman jealous; offset by a pair of intense crystal blue eyes.

He was dressed in normal everyday dark denim jeans and a fitted white cotton t-shirt that revealed every perfectly sculpted muscle from his chest, right down to his torso, marred only by the smear of black on the torn right bicep. While he seemed suited to the casual attire, there was a presence about him that made Laura think of a Viking warrior or a tartan clad highlander. There was an undeniably ancient quality about him. The kind of man whose face you’d see gracing the cover of a sweeping historical romance novel.

The three of them standing together made an incredibly gorgeous, contrasting yet perfect picture.

“I know you all have questions and I will answer them all in due course. For now, simply listen and perhaps I will have answered most of them by the time I have completed this briefing. We shall begin with introductions. To my far left is Darius, he heads up our IT mainframe and covers everything from computer hacking to online security and surveillance. Next is Sangard, our enforcer as well as our martial art and combat training expert. As for myself, I am Lamia, strategist and weapons specialist as well as the founding leader of the PACC.”

“PACC?” The question slipped almost silently passed Saadia’s lips before she’d even realized that she’d spoken.

“Yes.” Lamia replied with her eyes steady on Saadia’s face before skipping along each of them in turn. “It stands for Paranormal Arsenal and Combative Core. The three of us are the head of the PACC with four other locations branching throughout the US and Europe.” Turning on the screen the face of a man filled the left while text scrolled up on the right detailing his information from his height, build and weight along with other pertinent details but Laura had become cross eyed at this point and so she chose instead to listen to Lamia while she continued to speak.

“This man you see on the screen before you, his name is Luther. We’ve been tracking him for…sometime now. He is very dangerous and very powerful; he and his followers have been successful at eluding us at almost every turn. We’re caught up in the middle of a dangerous situation. Luther himself targeted you three for a reason,” Lamia gestured to Laura, Saadia and Zahra in turn.

There was a horrible sinking feeling in Laura’s stomach and the room around her grew eerily quiet. So the man in the ravine, that had actually transpired. He had been real. Then if that was the case, so had the beast…the massive wolf…the one he’d transformed into.

Laura’s head was swimming with countless thoughts while her stomach began to churn with nausea.

“That couldn’t have been real.” Zahra interjected. “That man – when he assaulted me. I felt my skull crack against the pavement, my arm snapped from the fall. He bit me. I felt my body dying…if that all happened why am I uninjured?”

“Yeah.” Saadia piped in, bolder in tone then she had been earlier. “None of us are wounded, bruised or broken in any way. If the things we remembered actually were real – we’d see the marks on our bodies. We’re fine. The things we remember, they were just nightmares. They never happened.”

Lamia nodded thoughtfully, brought herself before the table and rested her hands on the dark wood. She took a moment’s pause and Laura could see that she was forcing herself to maintain a level of composure before she spoke. Clearly patience was not one of Lamia’s strong suits.

“Yes it did happen. You know it deep down, and so do I. Second, the reason you have no injuries to speak of is because that is due to your body’s new and advanced abilities to heal itself from sickness and other maladies since the three of you are in fact fledgling vampires.” At hearing this, the trio began to argue vehemently but when Lamia raised her hands they all immediately shut up, terrified as the look in her eye was nothing short of dangerous.

“I said earlier no questions until I am finished. From here on out you will listen and I will do the talking after which you may ask whatever else you feel it is necessary to ask.” She waited a beat to make sure the message had fully sunk in before she backed away from the table to continue.

“Luther targeted you three in specific. He had you turned into vampires and I’m not sure what his reasoning for that is – other then he hopes it will impede the chances of us being victorious in our struggle. There is a prophecy in the paranormal realm, a future that was foreseen by an oracle that has lived throughout the ages. She saw the woman who would be the key to setting all vampires free. While there are some who are pleased by this, there are those who aren’t. Luther is one of them and unfortunately for us he is the most powerful and one of the oldest vampires still alive.”

Lamia changed the image on the screen from Luther, to images of Laura, Saadia and Zahra which Darius had managed to copy from the police database. Photos from Detective Faye Sunhill’s case files.

“We don’t know for sure who is to be the ‘prophesized’ as of yet but we were able to narrow it down to you three. There was to be a time of revelation, where the prophesized woman, the ‘Key’ would be given a mark, a three headed spear. To try and protect you, we each took to being your ‘shadows’ and watched over you from the time of your birth until the day would come when the Key would be revealed. Darius was appointed to protect Laura, Sangard with Zahra and myself with Saadia. None of us thought that there would be any threats made towards any of you so early – not before the revelation. I was wrong.” For the first time there was a bitter note of regret in Lamia’s voice and she broke from her train of thought, momentarily distracted by the admission of her failure. When she continued, her tone was firm and authoritative with no sign or indication of her earlier misgivings. The three of them moved from where they stood and sat across from the three beleaguered young girls.

“Luther instead chose to take a more proactive approach. Rather then waiting for the revelation and knowing I’d be there to pull you away before he had time to act, he moved in on all of you, trusting that one way or another he’d claim the right girl. Since we were unprepared for such an assault, there was nothing we could do to stop it. But now that you three are vampires, we intend to keep you close incase he changes his mind and decides to have you all killed which is still a very likely possibility. When the change took place you were brought here and locked away in the cells.”

Vampire? The name circled in Laura’s mind again and again. What exactly did it mean to be a vampire? The question rang loudly within Laura and Lamia twitched, breaking the sound of Laura’s thoughts whirling around inside her mind. Somehow, Laura knew, the woman had heard her, even without speaking. She had heard her thoughts.

“Forget everything you think you know about vampires. The creatures you’ve become are far too complex for me to explain all at once. Some of it you won’t be able to understand unless you’ve had time to grow through the transition and experience the changes yourselves. In essence, inside your bodies – which in the early stages of death were brought back to life, you’re now harboring the soul from a race of demons known as the Vamprioric. Unable to survive beyond the gates of Hell as they will die in sunlight, they bond with the body of a human, bitten by another who is infected with their evil and drawn from Hell. So, when a vampire has picked a human to sire – the demon’s essence is called out by its brother and then joined to the human body like a parasite which will then attempt to rip out your soul. If it succeeds the human will fall into its power, helpless to control or contain its evil and hunger.” Lamia paused in her speech to show images of the three girls after they had been attacked. Laura felt her stomach turn to knots as she beheld her face frozen in a mask of terror with eyes, empty and hollow with death.