Chapter 16: Chapter 16

A lot of things in my life I had fucked up, but never this bad. I had not only blown my chance with Mira; I had broken her heart, too. And there was no way I could make her understand why I had to do it. After her declaration, I ran to my bedroom and desperately tried to calm myself. Mira had left by the time I came out. My instinct was to run after her, but I tamped it down, not knowing if I could bear to see the hurt in her eyes. Coward that I was, I sent Boris to shadow her instead.

Earlier, I was truly ready to take our relationship further. I wanted to be physically intimate with her. It would be an enormous leap, but I was ready to risk it. Yet when she said she loved me, I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t bring myself to take what she was willingly giving me. Neither could I let her delude herself any longer. It was just too unfair to her. What she thought she knew about me was miles away from what I truly was—a monster, an evil and vile freak of nature. And if she only knew what I had been doing these past few days, it would disgust her. She wouldn’t want to be with me.

When Boris came to tell me about Ivan’s location, I knew I had to deal with it personally. I couldn’t let anyone think they could take one of my Knights hostage without facing the Dark Knight’s wrath. Even though it pained me to leave Mira out of my sight, I had no choice but to entrust her to Boris. My second-in-command was more than capable of keeping watch over her. She would at least be safe while I dealt with the mutts.

Four of my Knights were already waiting for me at the abandoned warehouse where Stefan and Marcus traced Ivan’s scent. It was the same warehouse in my territory where the cops found three female bodies. These arseholes were really trying my patience. Still, I blamed myself for the lapse. I should’ve been more vigilant, more meticulous. I had left this place unguarded, even after what happened. It should’ve made me realize that rats always returned to their nest. Sometimes It made me wonder if Mira was being too much of a distraction. But no, I shouldn’t blame her. She herself was under threat. And she wasn’t even aware of it.

“Sir, we detected four Newborns inside the premises. Two of them left earlier. Marcus is tailing them. He will come back here as soon as he has them,” Stefan said.

Stefan and Marcus were identical twins. Both were tall, blonde, handsome, and with bodies that could put a Greek god to shame. The Prince had chosen and turned them himself in the 1700s. They used to belong to an elite class of soldiers with extremely deadly skills, and fully dedicated to their jobs. Which was why the Prince assigned them to the Order of Knights. The Count had chosen the rest of my Knights, including Boris.

“Are there humans inside?” I asked.

Stefan nodded. “Yes, sir. At least three. Two of them are still alive.”

It’s why Ivan was here, I realized. He was following the scent of the humans.

“Okay. Let’s go in. Ivan and the girl are our top priority. Have you all doused?”

All four men nodded in unison. We always doused ourselves with a concoction of human and animal blood before a mission. It helped mask our vampire scent. All my Knights could teleport, but we rarely used it, and only as a last resort. The small tattoos on the inside of our forearms, which marked us as Knights, acted as our anchors.

“We must try to take the Newborns for questioning. No killings, if you can help it,” I said.

My Knights nodded and followed closely behind as I crept toward the small back door. It had no lock, proof of how much of an amateur these creatures were. I pushed the door open and peeked inside. It was dark, but it was not a problem for us. We could all see up to the end of the room perfectly. They tied one girl to a post, her naked body covered in bite marks. She was dead. The newborns laid the second one spread eagle on a makeshift bed, her hands and feet bound by rough ropes to the edges of the bed. She, too, was completely naked. The third one was on the floor, her glazed eyes staring blankly at the rafters. One newborn was suckling at her breast while the other one was busy raping her.

Silently, we surrounded the two delirious mutts. Then, before they knew what was happening, Stefan and I smashed their heads with the hilts of our swords. The two fell forward, collapsing on top of the girl. She didn’t even blink.

“Jules, Raven, slap the cuffs on these two. Tanner, see what you can do for the girls. Stefan and I will search for Ivan,” I said.

I didn’t wait for their response, assured that they will do as told. Tanner used to be a medic. He would know what to do with the girls. There was a set of rusty stairs leading to the loft area near the end of the room. It could take us to where they were holding Ivan. When we reached the top, we didn’t have to search for long. Ivan’s scent was strongest here. It came from the second room to the left. This door had a padlock. Stefan walked up to the door and kicked it in. We both growled in rage at what we saw inside.

The moon was shining down like a grotesque spotlight on poor Ivan. They had tied him to an old wooden chair. Ivan was unconscious. His exposed upper torso and face were raw, the skin almost melted away. I looked up and saw the large hole in the roof. They kept Ivan here because this was nearer to the rotted roof. The Newborns had left him here to bake under the harsh sunlight. Stefan rushed to Ivan, his sword falling to his side. The Knights were a tightly knit group; they treated each other like family, like brothers.

“Ivan! Ivan, wake up,” Stefan pleaded, not daring to touch Ivan. He knew there would be blisters everywhere, even on the parts under his trousers.

I knelt beside Ivan and daintily reached up to lift one of his eyelids. The eyeball was dry and cracked. The iris, which should’ve been pale blue, was now almost milky-white. Even if Ivan recovered from this ordeal, he might go blind. Another wave of pure rage crashed over me. Those Newborns would pay for this with their lives. But not before I extracted the name of their sire from them. Letter by letter. Stefan sat unmoving beside Ivan when Tanner ran into the room. He stopped short when he saw Ivan, his eyes turning hard and murderous.

“What is it, Tanner?” I asked, breaking the deadly silence. Tanner blinked once, as if remembering why he was there.

“Sir, the girls need to be taken to a hospital. They’ve lost a lot of blood and are barely alive,” Tanner said, his eyes returning to Ivan.

“No, there will be too many questions if we take them to a hospital. Call Boris. Tell him to send Mikhail and Rosier here with the two vans. Send Garrett and Link to the safe house as well. What blood type do the girls need?”

“O will do, for now, sir,” Tanner said, his eyes not leaving his injured comrade.

“Okay. Tell Link to go to our supplier for that. Is Marcus back?”

“Yes, sir. The two Newborns are now with the others.”

“Okay. Can we move Ivan without hurting him further?”

Tanner hesitated, then said, “It will be difficult, sir. I can pump him with drugs, but it won’t help much. Our bodies are quite resistant to human drugs. We have to be extremely careful in moving him.”

“Okay, let’s do it. Call Marcus and Raven here.”

We arrived at the safe-house within the hour, driving through the city with our sirens blaring. The authorities would not cause any problems if they thought we were one of their own. Thus, we used the vans we disguised as local police vehicles.

I put Tanner in charge of Ivan and the girls while Marcus, Jules, Raven, and Stefan took over the Newborns. After they settled the girls, heavily drugged, but receiving the proper medicine and blood they needed, we all focused our attention on the Newborns.

We took them to separate rooms for interrogation. We tied them all up beside a wide, open window. Newborns were more susceptible to sunlight, as their bodies had not yet adjusted to the sudden change in their metabolism. Unlike older vampires who already developed a bit of resistance to UV rays, Newborns burned much more easily.

The interrogation began with my Knights threatening to cut off their dicks with a rusty box cutter. Only the youngest exhibited any fear. He groveled and drooled, stammering over his words. He said he didn’t know what was happening, that the last thing he remembered was going into a bar and dancing with a foreign chick. Tanner said that they seemed to be under a memory block, one that was drug-induced. Was it possible to break through it? He said yes. Under extreme pressure, the mind could often overcome the blocks.

And so the torture began. I watched as we flayed them alive and nearly burned their eyes from their sockets; sitting unmoving in my seat as the Newborns went through every known method of torment. I only left to give Boris a break and see Mira even for just a few minutes. But I never stayed long. Guilt washed over me every time I looked into her innocent eyes. When I was with her, I kept my mind focused on the danger she was in. Watching and waiting, even eagerly. I wanted the threat to manifest itself so I could eliminate it once and for all.

This went on for four days. I was getting more frustrated and tired of watching the Newborns get mutilated and burned under the sun. Only to be patched up and maimed again. I was on the verge of giving up when Jules came out of one room with fire in his eyes.

“I think I have something. My subject saw the girl who lured him talking to a tall, dark-haired man with a goatee. She called him Tobias. It’s not much, but he also remembered the name of the girl, Sabina.”

“Can you get a description of the girl, too?” I asked.

“Already have it.”

“Good. Do you think you can push for more?”

“I don’t think he can last for very long. He hasn’t had a drop of blood for days. The next sunrise would turn him to toast,” Jules said.

“No. End his suffering now,” I said. Jules nodded and went back to the room.

I shouldn’t feel any pity for these mutts. They were killers, rapists, torturers. And they hurt one of my own. Yet, now, I couldn’t help but wonder if they weren’t the actual victims here. They didn’t choose to be vampires. Someone turned them without their permission. Yes, they became blood-thirsty, sex-obsessed beasts, preying on innocent women. But was that really their fault? Their maker programmed them to attack those women. Either brainwashed or hypnotized, as Tanner said. They didn’t really know what they were doing. Still, I condemned them to horrific suffering. Wasn’t I the real blood-thirsty beast then?

“Sir, my subject can’t take anymore,” Stefan said as he walked up to me.

I had pushed them to the limit as well. They were soldiers, warriors, not sick sycophants who enjoyed making other people suffer. Send them to battle and they won’t bat an eye, but this wasn’t what we trained them for.

“End it now. Tell the others to do the same. And dispose of their bodies properly,” I said, noting the relief that flashed in Stefan’s eyes.

“Yes, sir,” he said, and turned on his heels.

It was over. I could finally breathe. We got little information, but at least got something. A starting point. And we avenged Ivan.

As the anger raging in my blood since we found Ivan settled, Mira’s face swam in front of my mind’s eye. I had treated her terribly these past few days. It was time that I made up for it. Thinking of her made my body react instantly. Perhaps it was also time to take our relationship to the next level. I wanted her as I’d wanted no one before, and she was quite receptive to my kisses. Her reaction to my advances alone was enough to encourage me to pursue this avenue. I couldn’t wait to make her mine.

Yet, I threw everything away when I heard the word love. I couldn’t let her love me. Creatures like me didn’t deserve to be loved by someone like her. Or by anyone. We gave up that privilege a long time ago. How could I look her in the eye and accept her offered love when I knew I would only abandon her when the time was right? How could I let her think she loved me when she didn’t even know my true nature?

What a hypocritical piece of shit, I snarled at myself. You would’ve happily fucked her brains out had you not heard the L-word. You got scared. Scared that you—

The loud ringing from my phone broke the silence, interrupting my well-deserved self-flagellation.

“Yes, what is it?” I growled into the phone.

After I made sure the girls we rescued were being looked after by Tanner, and the other Knights were actively pursuing the pieces of information we gathered, I retreated into my sanctum sanctorum. Monitoring everything remotely. In truth, I was moping and hiding from the world. I had not left my house for almost three days, relinquishing supervision of the bar with James and protecting Mira to Boris.

“Boss, we have a problem,” Boris replied.

“What kind of problem?” I said, suddenly alert.

“Mira and her friends are on their way to the airport.”

“What? Are you sure they’re going to the airport? Maybe they’re just going out to eat.”

“I overheard one of her friends giving instructions to the taxi driver. They also had luggage with them, Boss,” Boris said.

Fuck, this couldn’t be happening.

Where was she going? How was I going to protect her now?