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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 
MARCUS
“Why did you threaten Harris?” Officer Riggs, a man from a nearby district, asks. Harris wanted someone who wasn’t biased to irritate me, clearly, and of course he wanted to watch, which is why he’s sitting right next to Riggs, questioning his life choices as I take every free moment to glower at him.
“How many times do I have to answer this question? Harris was harassing my partner. They think he’s… fuck if I know what Harris and the council think. That he’s siphoning off vampire blood to turn himself into a vampire but taking the absolute longest and strangest way that doesn’t actually work to do it?”
Officer Riggs stares at me, like he can’t possibly comprehend why I find this whole thing ludicrous. “I don’t need your attitude, Detective.”
The only thing that’s keeping me from smashing my fist against the table is knowing that Finn would not be pleased. “I have been here for two hours answering the stupidest questions you can come up with because your buddy Harris asked you to. I know you two are friends and that’s fine. I know I shouldn’t have harassed him. But you have to understand that I am sick and tired of vampires trying to control Finn because he’s a human. Trying to use and hurt him. Finn has done absolutely nothing wrong. He is a goddamn victim. He was fucking abducted as a child and tortured by a vampire. It’s the council’s responsibility to keep track of vampires and prevent them from doing things like this. And you know what the council did? You know how they helped? They refused to allow his father to turn him, even if it meant it might save his life.”
Harris leans back a little, looking uneasy, but I can’t stop because I’m just so goddamn pissed.
“They decided that this innocent child—who was abused by a man that was their responsibility—would be better off dead than turned because they had some petty fucking hang-up with Orin hiding the fact that he had a dhampir child that he didn’t know existed. Do you two check back with every woman you fuck just on the off chance she might have popped out a dhampir and hid it from you for years? No? How weird. But now instead of caring about any of that or even fighting to protect humans like Finn, your hang-up is that his blood is a little weird, ignoring the fact that Watson tortured him and did this to him, and instead, we assume he’s trying to become a vampire in the one way that is not even a reality. Who gives a shit if Finn chugs vampire blood every day for an afternoon snack? He can’t turn into a vampire that way!” I say. “Drinking vampire blood is not illegal!”
Officer Riggs sits back and glances over at Harris.
“This topic has nothing to do with you killing Eugene!” Harris shouts.
My hand is twitching, dying to just fucking bust the table to smithereens. “I did not kill Eugene. You have nothing to prove I did or even any reason to speculate I did. Yes, I fucking threatened both of you. I’ve threatened everyone in the damn VRC! I’ve even threatened Finn! I was pissed because you two were harassing Finn.
“Harris, for a moment, I want you to think about how it was living as a human. Now I want you to pretend that an awful man hunted you down, killed your mother, removed your arm and leg, and when you finally got free, you knew he was still out there. You could feel him following you. You were so afraid that you put yourself at risk to join the VRC in the hopes that someone could help you or protect you because the very council who should have did nothing. Never even mentioned helping. And then when you’re finally free of all of that, you finally think that it’s over, the council shows up and wants you to relive it again and again, but not because they cared. And then they proceed to stalk you, like Watson did. Do you kind of see why I’m a bit pissed?”
Harris seems to be at a loss for words as Officer Riggs watches me, then finally says, “I believe we need more information before we can make an accurate call.”
I shake my head. “More information? I’m not sure if you’ll get it now, Harris. You know by trying to pin this on me, you’ve lost the backing of the VRC. You get that, right? If I’m a suspect, I can’t work the case, Finn can’t work the case, my brother sure as hell can’t. I doubt the man my brother is dating could. You’ve literally lost your best team. If I’m a suspect, that’s it. You’re going to have to pass the whole thing over to a different department who has no idea what’s happening with the case right now. That’s fine, I’m sure you’ll be able to find the killer, no problem,” I say with a smile.
Harris clearly hadn’t thought of any of this. “I need Eugene’s killer caught.”
“Yeah… well, sadly, he can’t be caught by the best team in the VRC, and since I play such an integral part in the VRC, hell, Brooks and I go way back, none of us can help anymore. We will sadly have to withdraw from this case if I’m a suspect.”
Harris is backed into a corner and even Riggs is starting to look a bit uncomfortable.
“As… As a member of the council, I can make it possible for your team to still be in charge of the case,” he says.
“Oh… I don’t know… I mean… you wouldn’t want them covering up something for me, right?”
“After your statement, I no longer believe you are a suspect,” Harris says.
“Ah. Interesting. Okay. Then excuse me while I get going,” I say as I quickly stand up and leave the room before anyone can stop me. Brooks is waiting outside and by the look on his face, I can tell he was listening. Not too far from him is Kaden who gives me a shake of his head.
“I told Harris this was a waste of time,” Kaden says.
“Yeah, a waste of hours of my life.”
Brooks claps me on the back. “Thank you for not murdering anyone.”
“It was definitely not an easy feat,” I grumble.
“Just a few years ago, I doubt that would’ve ended with everyone still in their chairs. There may have been a broken table, endless threats, maybe some blood.”
“What can I say? It only took me hundreds of years to figure out how to have a civil conversation,” I say, which makes Brooks laugh.
“Hundreds of years or maybe just a human?”
“Hey now, I do the hard work and Finn gets the credit?”
Brooks grins. “It is what it is.”
“True. I’m ready for bed.”
“I tried telling Harris that you’ve threatened me since the day we met,” Kaden says. “And I’m still alive.”
“It was a goddamn waste of time,” I say.
“It was, but hopefully it’s over now,” Brooks says. “Have a good night. Finn said he went to Orin’s.”
“Alright, thanks.”
After texting Finn that they survived, I head out to my car and drive to Orin’s. When I pull in the driveway, I’m surprised that I don’t see Finn’s car and even more surprised that he hasn’t replied to my text.
Giving him a call, the phone goes straight to voicemail.
Is it dead? I suppose he might not have thought about all of this bullshit happening and let his phone go dead.
I see Orin heading out here, so I roll down the window. “Finn’s not here?”
“No, is he supposed to be?”
“Fucking hell. I got called in for something stupid and didn’t want Finn to be alone. I told him to go to my brother’s, but Brooks thought he went here. Maybe he’s with Claude,” I say as I quickly call Claude.
“Did you break out of prison?” he asks.
“Is Finn with you?”
“No, we weren’t home, so he said he was going to Orin’s… don’t tell me he’s not there?” Claude asks, his voice hesitant.
“He’s not and he’s not answering. Please go to the house.”
“I’m already heading there,” Claude says as I start the car. Orin jumps in with me as I back out of the driveway. “Does he park the car in the garage? It’s not in the driveway.”
“Sometimes,” I say as I listen to him call for Finn while I rush down the road toward home because I have absolutely no idea where else to go. Maybe we can track him from there or maybe he just got caught up in something. Hell, maybe he was waiting at work, and I missed him. I told him not to come, but that doesn’t mean he listened. “Claude, if you see or hear anything, let me know.”
“We’ll find him. I’m sure we’re panicking over nothing,” Claude tries to reassure me.
“Right.”
Quickly, I call Brooks who answers almost immediately.
“I don’t know where Finn is. Do you think he went to the department?”
“I just left there and didn’t see him, but I guess I wasn’t looking for him. He’s not with Orin or Claude?”
“No. Neither have seen him. Orin never even got a call that he was going there.”
“Fucking hell… okay. I’m sure he’s somewhere.”
“Right, let me see if DeGray possibly knows something. He hangs out with River sometimes,” I say, hanging up with him as I head toward our road.
“Shit, that’s Finn’s car,” Orin says, and my attention snaps away from the call I was about to make to the car, front end dipped into the ditch.
Quickly, I pull off the road in front of the car as I call Claude and tell him to get here immediately. As soon as I’m out of my car, I can see the damage to Finn’s vehicle. Something hit the side of the car, which appears to be why it’s now in the ditch, but when I look inside, I find it empty. I’m not sure if I’m glad about that or not. I guess it means he made it out, but the door missing on the passenger side has anxiety swirling through me. My foot kicks something, and I realize that in my haste, I hadn’t noticed Finn’s crushed cell phone lying on the ground.
“Finn?” Orin yells as I take off running, following his scent. I can smell others too, but the smell of them is hidden by the scent of Finn’s blood.
I head for the houses that are under construction, hoping to be following Finn’s tracks as I call Brooks.
“Something happened. I found his car… Brooks, I need you here immediately,” I say, panic infusing my voice. Nothing disrupts my reserve like Finn.
“Where are you?”
“That new housing development a few miles from my home.”
“I know it. I’m headed there now,” he says. When I reach a house partially blocked by a truck, I shove the vehicle out of the way before moving inside. There are drops of Finn’s blood on the ground that I try following, trying not to be so frantic that I miss something.
There were at least three vampires here… Finn’s skilled, but can he take on three vampires alone?
“What happened?” Alexei asks as he catches up to me after I go back outside.
“I’m trying to follow his tracks. He got through this broken window here. Looks like he wounded one of the vampires and headed this way,” I say as Claude moves to the right.
“One of them was Landall,” Claude says.
“I was thinking that too…”
“So Ender?” Claude asks.
I don’t even want to answer because if Finn was up against Ender… “I shouldn’t have left him alone. I should have waited until he was with someone or taken him with me. What the fuck have I done?”
Alexei grabs my coat sleeve. “Finn is quite strong and can get himself out of a lot of situations.”
“Yeah…” I stop suddenly.
By the way Claude, Orin, and Alexei react, it’s quite clear they also smell it.
So much blood. The scent of copious amounts of blood fills the air until it’s all I can smell.
There’s a body lying just around the corner, and for a moment, my stomach seizes, but I know immediately that it’s not Finn. Even that doesn’t fill me with relief. Orin’s the first one to reach the body, and when he touches the head, it rolls to the side.
“Finn couldn’t cut someone’s head clean off,” he says.
“Over here!” Alexei shouts, and I turn toward a finished house where I see a second body. “It’s Landall.”
“He’s dead?”
“Decapitated,” Alexei says, but the issue is that we all know what that means.
“Ender did it, didn’t he?” I ask as I move toward the house.
“Marcus… I smell a lot of Finn’s blood here,” Claude says quietly. “It looks like Landall had a hold of him when he was killed.”
“What the fuck does that mean? Ender saved him?” I ask, unable to comprehend this. I don’t even care about comprehending it, I just care about getting Finn back.
“His prostheses,” Orin says. “Are the coordinates on his prostheses still working?”
“Fuck… yes.” Quickly, I pull out my phone and find that my hands are shaking as I search for Charlie’s number. When she doesn’t answer the first call, I immediately call back again and she gives me a groggy, “Hello?”
“Charlie, Finn’s missing. I need you to access Watson’s ability to track him. Please, quickly.”
“Oh fuck. Okay… yeah, give me a second.”
I kneel down and examine Landall’s body before looking underneath the house into the crawl space. I can see spots in the dirt where Finn was dragged and see blood… he went through all of this alone. He was attacked again, and I wasn’t here to protect him. I always promised to protect him, and I didn’t again. What have I done?
“Marcus?” Charlie says.
“I’m here.”
“Okay, both arm and leg are reading as corrupt. They’re either broken or he could have gotten them submerged long enough that they shut down. They’re set to shut down to protect themselves if there could be damage, so there’s a possibility that it’s not reading the GPS tracking because of some type of damage.”
“Fuck. There’s nothing you can do?”
She hesitates before saying, “I’m sorry. I’ll keep fiddling with it, but I don’t know that there is. I’ll see what I can find. Let me know how else I can help, please.”
“Yeah, I will,” I say as I quickly hang up. “Fuck.” I kick a wheelbarrow sitting out that topples over, spilling dirt onto a newly paved driveway. “Fuck!”
I hear a noise and turn to see Brooks running up with Harris and Kaden behind him.
“This is your fucking fault,” I yell as I rush at Harris.
Kaden steps between us. “I know you’re upset, but you can’t just kill Harris because he was being an idiot.”
“If he didn’t fucking drag me off, Finn would be fine. If they’d have let Finn come with us, he’d have been fine!” I shout.
Harris looks a bit meek as he steps back. “W-We’ll find him. We’ll…” He stills as he notices the woman. “Fuck.”
“What?” Kaden asks before he rushes over to the woman. “Oh shit.”
“What?”
“She works at the office. She was the woman who told us what the person who killed Eugene looks like,” Kaden says. “Who’s the other one dead? Is that Landall?”
“What the fuck would someone from your office be doing here? Was this a setup? Was you threatening to arrest me all a ploy to get me away from Finn?” I ask.
Harris looks horrified now as he starts to back away. “No, it wasn’t. I swear it wasn’t.”
“I know it’s a strange coincidence, but…” Kaden glances between the bodies before looking over at Harris. “Right?”
“What would anyone even want the human for?” Harris asks.
I grab him before he can run away and jerk him forward as I clutch tightly onto the front of his shirt. “He has a name,” I growl. “It’s awfully fucking convenient that the only people who know what’s going on with all of this surrounding Finn are Ender and the people standing here right now.”
Claude sets a hand on my chest and wraps his other arm around me. “Marcus, come on. I followed his scent this way. We know Ender took him, we just need to figure out why and where. If he wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t have saved his life.”
I wish that made me feel better than it did but having him in Ender’s hands could very well be even worse. I release my grip on Harris and turn to join Claude as he leads me past the pond and over to a road. He points across the street at some houses. “They have door cams. Let’s see if they have anything, alright?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“Ender wants him for something, which means he wants him enough that he saved him.”
“I’ve also seen Ender slaughter an entire village of innocent men and women just for attention,” I say. “Ender is not a man I want anywhere near Finn whether he saved him or not.”
Claude squeezes me as Alexei continues across the street and up to the first door with a door cam.
“I know.”
“We know Ender always works for himself. He needs Finn for something,” Kaden says from behind me.
“I can only fathom it’s his blood,” Alexei says before knocking.
“But why?” I ask.
“Who wouldn’t want blood that could bring you back from the brink of death?” Claude says. “But don’t forget, he can only use it if Finn’s still alive.”
Right… he wouldn’t kill Finn if he needed him for that. He wouldn’t.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 
FINN
Pain courses through me as I wake up. I grit my teeth as I try to roll to my side but that just makes it spike.
“Fuck,” I hiss as I still.
Suddenly, I realize someone is staring down at me and panic hits me hard. Trying to drag myself back, I realize that I can’t use my arm and leg as I sit up and pain snakes into my stomach. I grab it tightly before realizing that just hurts worse as my hand comes away with blood on it.
“You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?” Ender asks.
Shit… that’s right. Landall was trying to kill me and Ender… Ender killed him. He… saved my life? But why? Marcus says he only does things for himself, so why would he have any reason to save me? To bring me here… where is here?
“W-What am I doing here?” I ask.
Ender cocks his head. “Does it fucking matter?”
“Yeah? It does…” Clearly.
He drops a bag in front of me. “Keep from dying, alright? That’s all you need to worry about. You humans are so… fragile. You’re not going to try to escape, now are you?”
“Can I please go home?” I ask.
“You know what’s hilarious? That I nearly killed you. If I’d have tossed you over that bridge and Marcus hadn’t caught you, I could have ruined everything. I have always been a bit… rash.”
Fear is eating at me as I sit here, watching him closely. “Thank you for saving me,” I say.
“Oh, human, I didn’t do it for you,” he says then gives me a pat on the head before leaving the room, closing, and presumably locking, the door behind him if the click has anything to say about it.
The moment he’s gone, I pull my pants down and undo my leg before trying to get it working again. Even now that it’s dry, it’s giving me absolutely nothing.
“Fuck,” I hiss before checking to see if the knee will stay locked if there’s weight on it, but it buckles the moment I press against it. Keeping it on won’t do anything at this point but force me to drag it, so I push it to the side and look down at the inflamed skin around the cap. Oh, it fucking hurts but not as bad as my stomach.
Grabbing the bag, I look inside before realizing that there’s a first aid kit inside. Trying to open it with just one hand reminds me how frustrating this is. I don’t have enough practice with it. Honestly, I hadn’t lived very long without two, and during that time, Orin and Aria were never farther than an arm’s reach away.
Pinning the box against my thigh so I can use my one hand, I manage to snap it open. Finding what I need, I grab some antiseptic spray and gauze before laying them out in front of me. Then I look down at where my shirt has been shredded by the vampire’s claws, the pieces stuck against the bleeding wounds.
Taking a deep breath, I pull slowly, trying to get the cloth out of the wound. The pain is enough to make the heat in my body skyrocket. After I manage to get it all out, I have to take a moment to just close my eyes and let my body calm down.
Okay, okay. I can do this. I can get the bleeding under control then figure out how to get out of this room. It’s fine. It’ll be fine.
Opening my eyes, I grab the antiseptic spray and use my teeth to take the lid off before spraying it. It fucking hurts, and I immediately regret it, so I toss it on the ground and grab for the gauze, but it’s in a packet I can’t open with one hand. Using my teeth, I try to tear at it as frustration courses through me. If I can’t even fucking open this… how the absolute hell am I going to get away from Ender?
I give it a hard tug and the small squares of gauze go flying everywhere. “Fuck,” I hiss as I pick them up and press them into the blood. They at least stick, but without a compress, I’m not sure they’re going to stay. There’s a bandage roll inside but I have absolutely no idea how to even begin rolling it with one hand while feeling like this. I open it and set it against my stomach, trying to use my prosthesis just to pin it there, but every time I try to toss it behind my body, I have to move my left arm and it slips.
Pain is stabbing through me as heat invades me to the point where I just toss it down and close my eyes. I need to get up. I need to get out, but first, I need a moment to just breathe or I’m not sure I’m going to make it.
Honestly, I’m not sure how long I lie there before deciding I need to do it—I need to get up and get to the door. I take my prosthetic arm off and leave it next to my leg so I can at least use what I can to steady myself. Crawling seems to be the best option, and as I leave bloody handprints on the floor, I slowly make my way over to the door. Reaching up, I already know I’m going to find a locked door so when the doorknob refuses to turn, I’m not even surprised.
Does Marcus know I’m missing by now? Will he even figure out where I am? I don’t even know myself.
Using the doorknob, I pull myself up and shove against the door, but it’s metal and holds tight. There are no windows and the walls that are made out of brick make me think I’m in a cellar of some sort.
Painfully, I crawl back over to my prostheses and grab my arm before making my way back to the door. Pinning myself against the side that the door will swing to, I sit down but in a position that will allow me to quickly stand.
I’m not sure how long I stay there for, but it seems to take Ender hours before I hear him undoing the lock. Pushing myself to my foot isn’t easy, but once he swings the door open, I can use that to grip onto. The moment he steps into the room, I swing my prosthetic hard enough that it smashes him in the face. I try rushing through the door, pulling it closed after me, but he tears it back open, grabs me by the throat and pins me against the wall.
I hear a squeak that definitely didn’t come from me seeing as I don’t think I can make any sound, and then the scurrying of feet, but the way he’s going to crush my throat is a bit more distracting.
“Don’t test me,” he growls as he drags me back into the cellar.
“Please let me go. Please. If it’s information you want, I’ll get it for you. Anything you want… please?” I don’t actually know that I’ll get him anything he wants but feel like it’s a good start.
He drops me to the ground. “Don’t do it again. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Good. Try it again, and I’ll break your leg. I’m tempted to right now.”
“I won’t try it again.”
“I know you will, but just don’t irritate me.”
Then he presses his knee against my arm and forces me to straighten it out as fear spikes in me that he’s going to break my arm. Instead, he wraps a rubber band above my elbow, confusing me greatly until the needle comes out. That’s when I grow panicked that he’s going to give me something, but it appears empty as he pokes me with it, then moves it a few times before stabbing me again and eventually getting blood.
Clearly, he’s aware of what my blood can do. But why? Does he want it to keep himself alive? What does he have to gain from it?
Exhausted, I remain on the ground as he puts the syringe away. That is until he grabs the bandage I’d dropped and winds it around my stomach that’s bled through the gauze. He tapes it down then leaves the room. Too exhausted to stand up, I sink back onto the cold and hard ground.
I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to get out of this one. But for now… I at least know he wants me alive. My blood won’t be too good to him dead.
      
I wish I knew what time it was. My body is only complaining about the pain and giving me absolutely no idea. Hearing a noise, I look over and jerk back as I realize I’m not alone.
No, there’s a small child in the room with me of about six or seven, it’s hard for me to tell. She’s watching me in concern. “You’re bleeding.”
“Hey… yeah… I got hurt. What’s your name?”
She cocks her head as she watches me. Her dark brown hair is long and pulled up into a messy ponytail that seems a bit crooked. She’s wearing unicorn pajamas that appear a bit too big for her. She looks a little thin and too pale but still has a big smile. “Rylee. What’s your name?”
“Finn. Rylee, could you help me?” I ask.
“With what?” she asks as she squats down next to my prostheses. “Are these yours?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes get huge as she picks one up. “They look so cool! I want one!”
“Could you get me a phone?”
“We don’t have phones.”
Fuck.
“You have a computer?”
“Nope. Oh! We have a TV. Want to watch TV?” She seems quite eager about this one.
“I do,” I say.
“We can watch anything you want,” she decides as she jumps back up and claps her hands. Thankfully, I’m not far from the door, so I crawl over to it before using the door that she freely swings open. She must have unlocked it. Does Ender know she did? He had to have heard her, right? Unless he’s not here right now.
As I pass through the doorway, I look up the stairs and immediately want to lie back down. But I can’t. I have an opportunity out of this cold cellar, and I’m going to take it. Using the handrail, I push on it to step onto the next step, but the pain that shoots down into my stomach nearly drops me to my knee.
“You need help?” Rylee asks as she tries tugging me.
I don’t know what I need beyond another fucking leg. Between half crawling and dragging myself, I manage to get to the top. The cold I’d felt from the cellar is gone now that pain is making heat rise in my body. There’s no fucking way Ender didn’t hear any of that if he’s in the house, so is he gone?
“Is Ender home?” I ask as she pushes the door at the top open.
“Of course I am,” Ender says from just on the other side of the door.
Quickly, I grab the child, planning on using her as some kind of hostage, but the movement startled her enough that she stumbles back into me, and I immediately lose my balance. I slam backwards as Ender grabs me by the collar of my shirt before I can slip down the stairwell where I would have fallen to the bottom.
I’m one hundred percent sure it’s just to keep the girl from falling and not because he actually cares if I live or die. He pulls Rylee away from me and the hold on my shirt tightens.
“En! Stop being mean!” Rylee demands. “This is why you can’t make friends!”
I can think of a lot of reasons why the man is devoid of friends.
“What did I tell you about going downstairs?” he asks her as he continues to hold on to me. I’m pretty sure it’s the only reason I’m still standing right now.
She looks away from him. “That… maybe… super-duper maybe… I wasn’t super supposed to,” she says. “But you know I had to.”
“You didn’t have to do anything.”
“How else will we watch TV? You told me TV was stupid, and you were sick of watching Mulan! Finn is going to watch it with me!”
“Is he now?”
She’s beaming at him while I’m contemplating whether or not this is my end. “Yep!”
Ender shakes his head. “He’s not, though.”
Rylee gives him a look that I might have found amusing if he wasn’t currently considering my death. “That’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair.”
“P-Please?” she asks. “You told me I could ask for anything.”
He stares at her in disbelief. “This is what you want?” he asks as he gives me a shake that I’d prefer not to be part of.
“Yes.”
He sighs, drags me over to the couch facing a flat-screen TV and drops me down onto it.
“You could be nicer. He’s hurt!” Rylee says.
“You’re a dhampir, aren’t you?” I ask. Maybe that’s why she looks pale, she hasn’t been given enough blood to sustain her. Or maybe she doesn’t want to drink blood.
She glances at me for a moment then shrugs and presses play on a disc player before hurrying over to the couch where she grabs a small bag of gummy bears from the side table and starts nibbling them. Ender leans over so his lips are close to my ear.
“If you even pretend like you’re going to hurt her, I will tear your head off your body,” he murmurs, and I’m pretty confident he’d do it.
“En! That’s not very nice!” Rylee protests.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that,” he says.
She’s folding her arms over her chest now. “It wasn’t very nice.”
“Ah well. I think that by now, kid, you’d realize I’m not a very nice guy,” he says as he drops the remote in my lap.
I press play on the main screen for some reason, not quite sure what the fuck is going on, but at least the living room will be easier to escape from than that cellar. Trying to pretend I’m being good and watching TV instead of looking for an escape is pretty hard. I don’t know the last time I watched Mulan, but I stare at the screen as I think about what to do. Ender is watching me, so I can’t very well look around the room and analyze all the exits.
He’s allowing me up here because he doesn’t think I’m a threat. Hell, I’m not much of one when I can’t even run or do anything. Does he have a car? If he has a car, I might be able to take it and flee, but will it be enough when faced with a man like Ender?
About halfway through the movie, Ender seems to decide that I’m not up to much shit because he backs off to a table about twelve feet from us.
Still not far enough.
If I grabbed for the child, he’d probably tear my head off. When I turn to look, he immediately catches my eyes and points at the TV.
Quickly, I turn my attention back to the TV, but as I do so, I notice there are some windows. The blinds are cutting away the outside world and I haven’t heard a single car go by. Are we no longer in the city?
“This is my favorite part!” Rylee says as she jumps up and starts belting out a song.
“That is a good part,” I agree as I settle into the couch and try to think.
      
Opening my eyes, I feel startled.
Fuck, I can’t believe I fell asleep like this. Just here on the enemy’s couch as he does whatever the fuck he wants, and instead of escaping, I decided to watch Mulan and take a nap.
Ender grabs my wrist and turns it over as he pulls out a needle.
“Whatchu doing?” Rylee asks.
“Drawing blood,” he says.
“Oh.” She watches him jab me a few times while I use his concentration on my arm as an excuse to look around the room. “You suck at this,” she informs him.
“I’m aware,” Ender growls before he must get it and grabs my face, pointing it at the TV. “You are watching TV.”
“I can’t look at needles,” I say.
“Uh-huh. Watch the damn TV. You don’t look at the needle if you’re watching the TV.”
“But I’m bored of watching TV,” Rylee whines before staring at me. “Want to play a board game?”
“Sure,” I say, positive that if watching TV is getting me nowhere, maybe a board game will at least get me to another room.
She takes off and I watch her go deeper into the house while shouting out game possibilities. I think I’m supposed to pick one, but my attention is on Ender who is kneeling in front of me.
“How does this work?” he asks as he waves the vial of blood at me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, positive that if he doesn’t already understand it, I don’t want him to learn that my blood can heal him if he gets hurt.
“Do not fucking bullshit me. Do you think I’m goddamn stupid?” he asks. “I know Watson used it to keep you alive and I know your blood is what kept that vampire I tried killing alive. So tell me. How does it work? Does it only work on vampires?”
“Don’t you think if I had some magical healing blood, I wouldn’t be in so much fucking pain right now?” I ask.
He tugs up my torn shirt and pulls the bandage back to check on it before grabbing my chin. “You will tell me.”
I doubt I will.
“Who wants to play Clue!” Rylee yells as she rushes back onto the scene and starts setting it up on the kitchen table with very little regard to the fact that Ender had been working there. “En, you can be this lady!”
“I’m not playing,” Ender says.
Rylee looks horrified as he makes his way back to his spot to continue his life of villainy. “P-Please?”
I stare at the man in disbelief as he snatches up the piece and sits down across from her. I assume I’m supposed to make my way over there, so I use the couch to assist me. Rylee’s eyes drop down to my stomach.
“En said you’re fine, but that looks like it hurts,” she says.
“I’m fine,” I assure her.
Uncertain, she looks over at En, but honestly, who knows what she’s used to seeing or experiencing with him in her life. She may be used to him decapitating anyone that irritates him. Mailman puts the package on the wrong end of the porch, might as well chop his head off.
“Can I wash my hands?” I ask since the dried blood probably isn’t the best part of this.
“Kitchen sink,” he says.
“I have to use the bathroom.”
He points to what looks like a half bath right off the kitchen. “Door stays open.”
Thankfully, it isn’t far, and I just drag the kitchen chair with me to work as an inconvenient cane. I was hoping to see something outside the window, but the curtain is drawn tight over it and Ender is watching me closely. I take my time washing my hands, hoping he’ll look away or something, but he never does. I even drink as much as I can since he seems to be sparing with giving me things.
One thing I do notice is that the pictures on the wall of a happy family do not contain Ender or Rylee.
Did he kill the original family? But it does tell me one thing… while he and Rylee might not have cell phones or internet, it doesn’t mean the house doesn’t.
When I reach the table, I sit down, feeling a little more alive. The pain is slightly better and the nap seemed to have helped my exhaustion. I can only imagine how Marcus is feeling right now, having absolutely no idea whether I’m dead or alive.
Honestly… while in Ender’s care, I’m not quite sure either.
“Which one do you want?” Rylee asks as she holds out the playing pieces the moment I sit down, so I just pick the character closest to me and set him down in the proper spot. “You can go first!”
“Okay,” I say as I grab the dice and roll. I move four and it rotates to her turn.
I can’t help but notice that Ender stares at me the entire time, which is horribly disconcerting. He wouldn’t murder me in front of her, would he?
“Can I ask you a question?” Rylee asks.
“Sure,” I say.
“How did you lose your arm and leg?” She’s watching me with a load of curiosity.
“I was abducted by a vampire who cut them off,” I say, knowing that I probably should have played it down for a child, but also feeling like if she’s been dragged around by Ender, she’s probably seen worse.
Her eyes get huge. “That’s so scary! Did you stop him? En will help you if you didn’t. En’s really good at helping people.”
“Is he?” I ask, quite suspicious about that. “That’s news to me.”
Ender just stares at me.
“Would you help me, En?” I ask.
His expression doesn’t change even when I call him by Rylee’s nickname. “Probably not, so it’s a good thing you already took care of that hiccup yourself,” he says.
“Ah yes. A hiccup.”
“Now, Finnigan, let’s stay focused on the game. I believe it was Professor Plum with the candlestick in the hall,” Ender says.
“Do you?” I ask as I grudgingly turn back to my cards and flip through them before finding the candlestick and showing it to him.
“Ooh! Which one was it?” Rylee asks as she leans forward, like she’ll be able to see through the cards.
“I guess you have to play to find out,” I tell her.
“Fine, fine. I’m gonna win, just you see,” she says.
What is Ender’s goal here? What does he hope to gain out of this beyond keeping me here and taking my blood… and for what reason?
As soon as Rylee has his attention, I let my eyes drift across the table to the shit Ender was working on, but of course it’s in a language I can’t read. Fucking hell, where is Claude to read this shit or better yet, break me out.
I slide the game’s pad of paper onto my lap to write and Ender stares at me. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
“Issue is I only have one hand, and then you both will see what I’m writing,” I say.
Ender stares at me so I slide the paper back onto the table.
“I’m surprised Marcus let you trust Landall,” he says.
“He didn’t… I made that mistake myself.”
“Ah, makes sense. Marcus has never been the trusting type. Landall once came to me with the desire of killing both Kaden and Marcus. Begged and pleaded for me to turn him. Told me he’d give me anything. He was a human at the time, and you know what he gave me? His son. Smaller than Rylee here. Told me I could eat him in exchange.”
Rylee’s eyes snap over to his. “Did you eat him?”
Ender ignores her inquiry. “I left Landall there to die, yet who stumbled upon him but Kaden who turned him into a vampire. Kaden, the very man he was wishing to kill. I have no idea what Landall told Kaden, but it was surely something along the lines of how I slaughtered his son and left him for dead in order to gain pity.”
“Did you kill the son?” I ask.
“You are nosy, aren’t you? I did not. Little humans generally aren’t what I seek out to eat. I prefer vampire blood, especially back then. Don’t ask me what happened to him, I have absolutely no idea. My concern definitely didn’t revolve around tiny children at that point in time.”
“But it does now?” I ask.
He glances over at Rylee. “This one is different.”
“I’m amazing,” Rylee decides.
“A dhampir? Is she yours?”
“She is neither,” he says.
I glance at her again and she stares back at me like she has absolutely no idea why I’m confused by this. “She is not a human.”
“You are quite perceptive, aren’t you?”
“I watched her eat…” I say as it slowly dawns on me what is happening. “She’s a true vampire.”
“She is.”
Now I’m even more confused. “How old is she?”
“I’m seven,” she says. “Well, almost. Like seven days until I’m seven.”
“Do you know what happens when anyone tries taking away something that is mine?” he asks me. And I’m reminded of what he told me on the bridge about how those who died in the apartment had taken something that belonged to him.
Did they take Rylee from him?
“I do,” I say.
“You keep that in mind while staying here, will you?” he asks. “Now let’s finish this ridiculous game.”
I know he’s talking about the board game laid out before us, but I’m more than eager to finish whatever game he’s playing so I can go home.