Taste of Torment

Chapter Ten

(Sam)

Quentin and the bald, stocky vampire beside him jerked back in surprise as we all appeared in front of where they were crouched low in the rainforest. Quentin seemed a mixture of relieved and invigorated at the sight of us. After we had all exchanged nods of greeting, he gestured to the bloke with him. “This is one of my vampires, Gio.”

Jared was immediately all business. “What are we dealing with?”

Quentin pointed to the camp that was set up a hundred feet away. Our vampire enhanced vision meant that we could see it quite clearly. “From what we’ve been able to gather, there are approximately sixty-eight to seventy humans remaining in total – almost all of those are roaming the village and the surrounding area, hunting vampires. The rest of the humans are based in this area. I didn’t want to launch an attack until I had your back up.”

“Actually, there won’t be an attack. We have a new plan.” I relayed our conversation with Antonio. “As such, the new objective is to kill every last tainted vampire but to allow the humans to live.”

Quentin looked extremely disappointed, which was no surprise given that these humans had sedated and captured some of his vampires. “What about the captives? One of them is my brother. I want him out of there.”

“We’ll deal with the vampires that are being held captive,” Jared told him, perfectly understanding Quentin’s distress. “Is your brother tainted?”

“No, but the others are.”

“Then we’ll get your brother out,” I assured him. “But the tainted will be destroyed – only the untainted prisoners will be freed, I’m sorry.”

Sad but resigned, Quentin nodded. “I understand.”

“In order to free them, we plan to not be seen or heard by the humans. Providing the other humans don’t make their way back to camp, there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be possible.”

Quentin frowned thoughtfully. “I’m assuming it would help if we distracted the roaming humans and led them even further away?”

“Yes.” Jared glanced at the camp. “If the other humans return, everything could go to shit. Disable them if you need to, but do not attack them.”

“One of my vampires can induce sleep, and another can cause hallucinations – those gifts in particular would help here.”

Resolve blazing in his eyes, Cristiano spoke. “I want to go with Quentin.” He needed his revenge, I understood.

“Me too,” declared Ava.

When Salem growled, I shook my head at him and spoke quietly. “It’s her choice. She and her brother need this. It’s the only reason they’ve come.” His response was a grunt.

Jared spoke to Quentin. “While some of you concentrate on distracting the humans and leading them away, the rest of you need to silently hunt every tainted vampire before the humans can gain possession of them.”

Chico rubbed at his nape. “I’m surprised they aren’t senselessly attacking.”

Quentin grumbled, “They’re hiding – their primal instinct for survival has taken over; with no rational thoughts, instincts are all they have now. Once you’ve freed my brother, I’d like it if you could bring him here. Gio will be waiting for you once he’s teleported me to the others.”

I gave him a nod. “Good luck hunting.”

Quentin grinned as he stood. “Good luck creeping.”

“You all take care,” said Ava, her gaze lingering on Salem. Cristiano just nodded at us.

“You too,” I said simply. Once Quentin, Gio, Cristiano, and Ava teleported away, I turned to the others. “Damien, I want to know where every single guard in this camp is situated.” Stuart would have been a great help here; I keenly felt his absence. “Denny, we need to know exactly how many humans are in that tent and what kind of weapons they have.”

“And exactly how many vampires are being held in the vehicle,” added Jared. “I don’t want to teleport in there without being prepared. The second the tainted know they have company they’ll most likely cause a racket. We don’t need that.”

Denny swiftly but silently advanced fifty feet through the forest before reducing himself to a puddle of goo and quickly slid toward the camp. Damien stilled and bowed his head, and I knew he had gone astral travelling to gather the information we needed.

“I was expecting to find myself in the middle of a war zone.” Chico scanned his surroundings warily. “The place is quiet.” He shot an anxious look at Jude, who was crouched beside him.

“Yeah,” agreed Butch, “unnaturally quiet. Even worse than when we went to the tunnels.”

Harvey swatted at a mosquito. “This kind of reminds me of our tactical training field. You know, being an abandoned village that’s deathly silent.”

Jared’s mouth twisted. “Then think of this as what we’ve practiced a million times during training – moving quickly but silently, and remaining out of sight.”

Alora hugged herself, rubbing her upper arms. “I hope Ava will be okay.”

Jude seemed just as anxious. “She’s just so tiny.”

“Ava can take care of herself, believe me.” Feeling Dexter’s cautiousness, I almost smiled. His constant presence was a comfort, even when he was in tattoo form.

Suddenly Damien’s head lifted and he took a long breath.

“You okay?” Reuben asked him.

“Yeah, fine.” Damien turned to me and Jared. “There are fourteen guards in total. Six are patrolling the camp. Four are guarding the tent. And another four are guarding the vehicle containing the cages. Every last one of them is vigilant. They clearly know it’s in their best interests to be alert. They know what they’re dealing with.”

Jared cocked his head. “Vigilant and nervous, or vigilant and confident?” There was a distinct difference. One meant that they might easily panic and that their ‘flight’ instinct would make them hesitate. The other meant that they were psychologically prepared and wouldn’t hesitate to act.

“The patrollers and the ones guarding the vehicle look alert but spooked. The others are pretty confident – even seem a little high on adrenaline.”

Jared went to speak again but was distracted as a puddle of goo slithering toward us. It quickly reformed into Denny.

He shook himself a little. “There are five humans inside the tent. They’re definitely military, and they’re armed with shit that I didn’t even know existed.”

Damien nodded. “The guards – particularly the patrollers – are well-armed too. I don’t even know what it is they’re carrying. I did identify smoke bombs and tranquiliser guns, though.”

“Nineteen humans in total, then.” I pursed my lips. “Not too high a number.”

“How about inside the vehicle?” Jared asked Denny.

“There are ten captives,” replied Denny. “There are four of Quentin’s vampires in there – only one is untainted, and he’s out cold. I’m assuming he’s Quentin’s brother. The other six are from Commander Rodney’s squad and, thankfully, they’re just injured and knocked out.”

His face a mask of absolute determination, Jared spoke. “Okay. First we need to disable the six patrollers. Chico, Salem, David – that’s where you guys come in. I don’t want Reuben to strengthen your gifts while you deal with the humans. All I need is for them to be out cold for a while. Afterwards, you hide the patrollers in the trees.” Without hesitation, they slinked away – splitting up and heading in different direction to target the guards.

“It’s weird being on an assignment that doesn’t involve torturing anyone,” commented Butch after a full minute of silence. Typical. It was looking more and more like the sociopath theory might be accurate.

Harvey snickered. “Yeah. It’s always cool watching Coach frighten the shit out of people with her whip. Sexy as hell, too. Ow!” He scowled at Jared for cuffing him over the head.

Reuben shook his head at Harvey. “It wouldn’t be so bad if you did that purely to irritate Commander Michaels like Max and Damien do” – Damien smiled at that – “but no, you do it because you don’t have the sense to keep your mouth zipped. It’s seriously worrying.” Denny, Jude, and Alora chuckled quietly.

Just then, Chico, Salem, and David returned. Chico dusted his hands. “Done. We hid in the same spot so it’ll be easier to keep watch over them.”

Satisfied, I nodded. “Then let’s move on to the next stage of the plan: getting to the captives. Chico, I need the humans guarding the vehicle out of the equation – I don’t want them responding to any noises they hear inside it. But don’t move until I give my signal.”

“Sure thing, Coach.”

“What about the humans guarding the tent and the people inside it?” David asked me.

“Providing they remain where they are, there’s no need for us to even so much as breathe in their direction.” I could only hope that things ran that smoothly. “Chico, Harvey, Jude, Alora – keep watch over them. If any of them head toward the vehicle or they realise that the patrollers are down, telepath Jared straight away. If too many of them head for us, then I’ll need Chico to put them asleep for a while. Harvey, you use your telekinesis to help hold them back and give Chico time to target them all.”

“What about us?” Reuben gestured from him to Damien.

“I need you both to keep an eye on the unconscious patrollers. If they look to be waking, contact Jared immediately.”

“My gift can help here,” said Alora. “I can ask the local wildlife to give me warnings if more humans approach and to keep them distracted for us. They’ll act as my eyes and ears.”

“That would help a great deal.” Jared pointed from David to Salem. “I need you both to act swiftly once I teleport you and Sam inside that vehicle. We don’t want the tainted having a chance to react to our presence. That means we destroy them as quickly as possible. In order for you to do that, you’ll need Reuben to strengthen your gifts.”

As soon as Reuben had done his thing, I spoke. “Chico, the second you’ve disabled the humans guarding the vehicle, telepath Jared.” He saluted me. “Now everyone move into position.” Everybody other than David and Salem silently slunk away, seeming to almost melt into their surroundings.

Fidgeting as usual, David shuddered. “Is it me, or does this just seem too easy?”

Jared’s brow furrowed. “You think it’s a trap?”

David shook his head. “It just feels like…I don’t know…like fate’s being a little too helpful. And that’s always odd.”

Salem shrugged. “Don’t forget, we’re dealing with humans here. It’s bound to be easier.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Jared nudged me. “Chico just contact me. The guards are out cold.”

“Then we move.” As Jared teleported us inside the vehicle, the smell of rotten fish hit me so hard I felt dizzy, but I didn’t have time to even balk. Instantly, we targeted the tainted. I took out one with an energy ball to the chest, Salem destroyed one with his lethal psychic punch, and David delivered a psionic boom to the third vampire’s brain. Like that, they were all ashes. It was clear that Jared was disappointed not to be able to kill one, but his gift of electrokinesis could be pretty noisy and we couldn’t risk him alerting anyone.

Salem assessed the mess of broken cages and the small puddles of blood. “You can see where some of the vampires escaped and attacked.”

Jared’s face scrunched up in distaste. “According to Antonio, the tainted Pagoris got free and killed many of the humans. Come on, let’s get these guys out of here.”

He tugged on the door of the cage that was holding one of Rodney’s squad. The sedated Keja didn’t even stir. Due to the strength of the lock, it took the combined efforts of Jared and me to break open the cage. David and Salem worked as a team to free three of the others while Jared and I helped the remaining two. None of the injured woke, though a few of them made low moaning sounds that seemed more like yells in the silence of the vehicle. Thankfully, there was no contact from any of our squad, so that had to mean that the humans hadn’t heard anything.

After teleporting Quentin’s brother to Gio, Jared moved Rodney’s squad members in two trips; placing them with Butch, Reuben, and Damien. In the meantime, Salem, David, and I concentrated on destroying any evidence in the vehicle. Sure it was fair to note that the humans clearly already had some, but why give them more?

No sooner had a tingle of apprehension crept up on me through my bond with Jared than he appeared before me, his expression dark and anxious. I stiffened. “What’s wrong?”

He grabbed my arm. “We have to get out of here now.”

“What? Why?”

“Apparently the animals alerted Alora that humans are approaching; they sent her pictures of them coming from every direction.”

Fucking fabulous. “They know we’re here?”

“No. Chico said someone in the tent was talking over a radio a few minutes ago but he hadn’t been able to make out what was said. Now he’s thinking that the humans had ordered all their hunters to return to camp. I don’t know if they’re planning to leave or what, but we need to move because I don’t have any intention of getting shot by a tranquiliser. I told Chico to take the others to where Butch, Reuben, and Damien are waiting with Rodney’s squad members so I can teleport them all in one swoop. I’m going to teleport you three back to The Hollow first and then go back for”

“No. I won’t leave until my squad is out. Besides, I have a little more evidence here to get rid of. Teleport to the others and take them back first.”

He growled, “Fuck, Sam.”

“Do it. We don’t have time to argue.”

“Pain in my goddamn Pagori ass,” he muttered before disappearing.

Thirty seconds later, we’d destroyed the last of the evidence. I turned to David and Salem. “Come on. Staying in the vehicle won’t be the best idea.”

“Where are we going?” asked David, following me as I quietly scampered to the double doors at the back of the vehicle.

“The trees,” guessed Salem, knowing exactly how my mind worked. Rainforest trees were good for hiding in.

“Yes.” Carefully and quietly I swung the door open…and was knocked flat on my back as a skeletal, grotesque-looking Keja dived on me and clamped his teeth around my throat. Well, fuck. I didn’t even have time to defend myself before it burst into ashes, thanks to either David or Salem – I wasn’t sure. They were both at my side at the exact same time that Jared teleported in front of me, clearly having felt my pain through the bond.

He blanched. “Oh, fuck no.”

It was my own bloody fault. I’d had everyone concentrating so hard on the humans, trusting Quentin and the others to deal with all the tainted vampires. I should have known better than to take it for granted that we were completely safe from them. Jared immediately dragged me against him and took me to The Hollow. It was lucky that David and Salem were holding onto me or Jared might have absentmindedly left them behind in his haste to get me home.

Arriving in the infirmary, Jared laid me down on one of the beds. “No, baby, no – this can’t be fucking happening.” He clasped his hands behind his head, staring down at me in pure disbelief.

A good-natured Keja who liked to act as a nurse – apparently letting go of her human profession had been hard – rushed over with a towel. Salem snatched it from her and pressed it firmly against the bite wound on my throat. Following that, he immediately called Antonio using the infirmary phone. The rest of the squad – who had clearly arrived there with Rodney’s injured squad members and were supportively remaining at their side – surrounded my bed. They cursed, growled, gawked, and hit me with questions that I was too distracted to answer. Fuck, the bite was itching like crazy and it was taking everything I had not to scratch it. Was it supposed to itch? I didn’t recall Evan, Max, or Stuart reporting that.

The nurse, Mary Jane, repeatedly tried to squeeze through the boys to reach me, but they weren’t budging. I internally shrugged. It wasn’t like there was anything she could do to help me anyway.

David swallowed hard. “Coach…Shit, I feel like I tempted fate.”

“This is no one’s fault but my own for concentrating too much on the humans.”

He knotted his hands in his tousled hair. “We should have sensed that vampire out there.”

“If we hadn’t already been surrounded by the scent of rotten fish, we would have done.”

“You just wouldn’t let me teleport you home, would you?” Jared took to pacing beside my bed, which was why people were giving him a wide berth. This was what Jared did whenever I got hurt. Took it out on me. Yes, it was unfair. But logic never prevailed over his panic and fear. I was used to it at this point. “You just had to wait until the others were safe.”

“Yes, I did. And I’d make the same decision again.” That was clearly the wrong thing to say, despite that it was the truth, because everyone looked ready to explode at me. “You can lecture me about it later.” I went to sit up, but Jared pushed me back down.

“No, don’t move.”

“Why? Lying here isn’t going to make any difference. And it’s not like there’s anything anyone can do. The only thing to do now is”

Jared’s eyes flared with rage, his irises glowing like lasers. “Don’t ask me to lock you up in a fucking cell!”

“You want me to attack people and let the taint spread, is that it?”

“And you’d be perfectly fine with confining me in a glass cage, would you?”

“Well of course not,” I snapped. “But what else do you expect me to” I double-blinked as there was a whizz of movement through the doors and suddenly Antonio was beside me. Clearly he’d used vampire momentum to get here.

He looked distraught. “Sam, how did this happen?”

“How do you think it happened?” Jared snorted. “She did what she always does. She put herself in the line of fire. If she had just let me teleport her out of there when I suggested it, she”

“I’ve told you, you can lecture me later.” I returned my attention to Antonio. “I need to know something. Will Jared become tainted too because of our bond?”

“No.” Antonio sighed, his voice low and filled with regret. “But he will gradually deteriorate and weaken as you do. Then when you die, he will die also.”

Fuck, fuck, fuckety, fuck.

“Let me take a look at the bite.” Antonio gently eased back the towel. The combination of horror, repugnance, and confusion in his expression made my stomach plummet. “David, I need a wet pad to clean the wound.”

In vampire speed, David was back with the pad. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Each gentle dab only made the wound itchier. It was driving me bloody mental and I had to ball my fists to keep from clawing at it. When Antonio was done, he gasped. David’s mouth fell open. The others had similar reactions.

Oh God, now what?

“What’s wrong?” Jared cupped my chin, turned my head, and leaned over to get a good look. “It’s almost fully healed,” he said incredulously.

“But not in a good way,” warned Antonio.

I frowned. “How can it be bad if I’m healed?”

Antonio’s gaze darted from me to Jared. “This is something we need to discuss in private.”

So this was related to my hybrid status, then. Well there was no way he could clear the room, since the injured were being tended to here.

“Then we talk alone,” Jared stated. Understanding, Antonio held onto my hand while Jared lifted me into his arms. Then suddenly we were in our apartment and Jared was positioning me on the sofa.

I tried to sit up, but he urged me to lie back down. Huffing, I humoured him.

“Now what did you mean?” Jared asked Antonio, keeping his hand on my shoulder.

“Do you remember how swiftly Sam healed during her duel with Magda? She had gaping holes in her shoulders”

“Thanks for the reminder,” I grumbled.

“You shut up,” Jared said, but his tone was surprisingly gentle despite the anger surging through him.

“My point is that she healed unnaturally fast, which we all attribute to her being a hybrid. Vampires have accelerated healing, but if our injuries are quite severe, we can take hours to fully heal. In the case of The Call, the bite marks worsen. They do not heal at all. As you can see, Sam’s wound has closed. But the teeth marks remain, and they look ugly and angry.”

“Ugly?” I echoed. “Someone get me a mirror. I want to know what all the fuss is about.” Truthfully, I wasn’t as calm as I sounded. But if I was to express my panic, it would feed Jared’s fear and make him ten times worse. When no one moved, I pressed, “A mirror!”

Cursing, Jared disappeared into the bedroom. He was back at my side in a blink with my handheld mirror. At the same time, there was a knock at the door.

“That will be my guards. I lost them in my haste to get to Sam.” It turned out that Antonio was right. The guards entered with Luther and the pit-bulls in tow.

Jared arched a brow at Luther. “You didn’t foresee this happening?” The Advisor had been known to keep things to himself for fear of altering a person’s path too much.

Grim, Luther shook his head. “Believe me, this is not something that I would have kept from you. In fact, I would have locked her away myself to keep her safe.”

Any other time, I might have scowled at him for that comment. But I was too busy panicking about the bite mark on my throat. Dear God, it looked disgusting. Just as Antonio had said, the mark was in fact seriously ugly. Although the skin had healed, it was in a weird zigzag fashion, like someone had done a really bad stitching job. Furthermore, the patch of skin around it was blotchy and a blazing red. “All right,” I said shakily, placing the mirror on the coffee table. “What does this mean?”

“I can only speculate, because I have never seen this happen before.” Antonio sighed. “But it seems to me that although the skin has strangely closed, your system is tainted.”

That was my guess as well. I swallowed hard. “You know what needs to be done.”

“We’re not locking her up,” Jared quickly and vehemently stated.

Luther laid a supportive hand on Jared’s shoulder. “I hate to agree with her, Jared, I truly hate it. I do not like the idea of her caged any more than you do. But it is important that she is isolated.”

He shook off Luther’s hand and stepped away. Denial was pasted all over his face. “She can’t pass it on unless she bites someone.”

“She might lose rationality quicker than the others did,” Antonio cautioned in a sensitive tone. “She’s a hybrid, Jared. We have no idea how she will react to The Call. But we do know that she will not survive it,” he added in a low voice that was loaded with anguish. The resolve in Jared’s expression didn’t even slightly lessen.

“Can you give us a few minutes alone?” I asked Antonio and Luther.

Antonio nodded. “Certainly. I will make the appropriate preparations.” In other words, he’d ready me a cell.

Once Jared and I were alone, I sat up and appealed to him with a look. “I know it’s hard for you to do this. But I don’t want to hurt someone. I don’t want to taint someone. Please don’t put me in a position where I might do that. It’s bad enough that I know you’re going to die because of me.”

He snickered, but his anger was gone now. There was only a sense of defeat. “You think I’d want to live without you? You think I even could, whether we were Bound or not?”

A lump of emotion suddenly clogged my throat and my eyes filled. “I’m so sorry.”

He crouched down in front of me and tucked my hair behind my ear. “We knew when we Bound in that ceremony that it would mean we depended on each other to live. I don’t regret it, and I’d make that commitment all over again.”

“Then you’re a dumb prat.”

He swiped my tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “And you’re a crazy bitch.”

I gently curled my hands around his wrists. “You have to let them confine me, Jared.”

“Sam, don’t”

“I need to be sure that I can’t hurt anyone. I’d have to go in it sooner or later anyway. It might as well be sooner.” Shuddering at the prickly itch tormenting me, I released his wrist and went to rake my nails over the skin. Jared snatched my hand and kissed my palm.

“Don’t scratch it. I can feel how much it’s driving you crazy.”

My guess was that it would get worse the longer I was tainted. “Take me to the cell. Please.”

Squeezing his eyes shut, he rested his forehead against mine. “Baby…” His panic, fear, and devastation were zooming through me, swarming me, stealing my breath. There was even an element of guilt there – typical.

“You’re not at fault,” I insisted. It didn’t seem to make any difference.

After a series of deep breaths, he rose to his feet and stared down at me through tormented eyes. I thought he’d scoop me up and take me to the cells. Instead, he retrieved his cell phone from the table and punched in some keys. Seconds later, he was speaking in a defeated yet resigned voice. “Call Sebastian. Tell him to bring Paige West here.”

Oh.