The Bite That Binds

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

(Sam)

I was glad to be meeting with Antonio in this particular room of his mansion. In the centre of the huge space was a large glass aviary. Inside, with the many trees and plants, there were canaries, rabbits, guinea pigs, and lots of different types of birds. Making it even nicer, a tiny stream bordered the entire aviary.

This room was where Antonio came whenever he felt overwhelmed by things; he’d once said that the peaceful space relaxed him. So, as always, he and Luther were wearing beaming smiles as they watched the animals scurrying around. At my entrance, the dogs immediately came to sniff and nuzzle my hands. Jared received merely a fleeting, dismissive look from them, which made him snort.

“So what did Ryder find out?” Jared gruffly asked Antonio. He never bothered with pleasantries when he was in this kind of mood. And why was he in a bad mood? He’d been hoping that Ryder wouldn’t retrieve the relevant information until after our ceremony. Yeah, I could understand that. But I’d rather have the whole thing over with before then, as it would mean I could totally relax and have nothing on my mind other than the ceremony. Hopefully this peaceful place would work its wonders on Jared.

Antonio’s mouth twitched in amusement at Jared’s abruptness. “I believe there is plenty that you should be able to use to shut down this operation once and for all.”

“Good.” Somehow, that managed to sound like a growl.

I elbowed Jared hard. “Snap out of it. You said sex would cheer you up. Clearly that was a load of bleeding shite.”

He released a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. Tell us what Ryder found out,” he said more calmly.

Antonio nodded. “The Deliverer, Wendy, did not know much at all. She was merely given the position by the Medics, and was told not to ask questions. She didn’t. The Medics, on the other hand – Sandra and Mitch, I believe their names are – proved very useful.”

The powerful Keja settled himself on one of the benches before continuing. “None of them had known each other prior to becoming Medics. Erik had been struck off the medical register for misconduct. Mitch had been in an accident that left him with a tremor in his hand, which meant he could no longer be a surgeon and so he lost his job. Sandra was in medical school but struggling to pay for it herself.

“One thing that applied to all of them was that they were financially struggling. Erik and Mitch had lost big jobs, but still had big mortgages and families to support. Sandra worked part-time as a waitress, but some of her wages were going to her mother, who was an alcoholic and mostly drinking it away.”

A part of me could sympathise with that, but I didn’t feel that it could possibly excuse anything that they had done.

“Each was recruited separately. They were teased by a stranger with the idea of a job that would be the answer to all of their problems. They were then given a card and asked to call if they wished to talk about it more. Each of them did. Separately, they were collected and taken to a detached house. There, they were informed exactly what they would be required to do and asked if they had problems with this. These people are known as the Handlers.”

“I take it the Medics didn’t have any issues.”

“Sandra had had her doubts, but apparently because of her own childhood, her belief was that children would be better off with financially comfortable families. She was assuming that the babies were going to such people. Mitch had simply needed the money desperately as he was extremely close to losing everything. Erik had been scared and intimidated into saying yes after, without their knowledge, watching one of the vampires feeding on a human.”

No wonder he had been so petrified of us.

“After accepting the position, all of them had their memories altered so that they remembered only what they needed to remember. Erik had, at one point, seen fangs after meeting with one of the Handlers, and it had sparked the other memories to resurface. He therefore knew exactly where the babies were going, and exactly who they would be going to.”

“Yet he didn’t stop?” Jared’s expression morphed into one of disgust.

“It wasn’t sitting well with him. Many times he had considered going to the police, but he was in too deep and he had a wife and twin daughters. Apparently, though, the vampires had noticed the guilt, so they had frightened him by telling him that if he talked, they would drink his wife dry and sell his children before then killing him.”

My eyebrows rose. “I suppose that explains why he was prepared to slit his own throat rather than tell us anything.”

“Was Ryder able to get us any names?” Jared asked Antonio.

“Yes. The name of the person who did most of the talking was ‘Zeke’. The one with the gift of meddling with memories was ‘Blake’.” Antonio smiled slightly as he added, “Ryder did sketches of them, but he’s no artist, so don’t expect too much.”

“This house that Erik, Sandra, and Mitch were taken to,” I began. “Did Ryder manage to get an address?” I wasn’t optimistic about that.

Antonio’s smile was smug. “Fortunately, as Sandra was familiar with that particular area, she was able to recognise the avenue.” Oh, fab.

Jared nodded approvingly. “Were there any other names? Anything that could be linked to the vampire who’s running the operation?”

Sighing disappointedly, Antonio replied, “They merely referred to him as ‘the boss’. They talked to each other about ‘Lynne’ and ‘Moira’, both of who I suspect take care of the babies.”

“Then Lynne and Moira die too,” I said simply, to which Jared nodded.

Antonio rose from the bench. “I suggest you leave promptly. Regrettably you’ll be missing tonight’s entertainment, but I will not have you miss or delay the ceremony − it will happen in two evenings’ time. Tomorrow evening must be a time that you can relax and prepare for it. As such, if all is not resolved tonight, I will hand over the assignment to another squad.” He held up a hand when both Jared and I went to speak. “I appreciate that this is a sore spot for every squad, but I will not let your work interfere with your Binding.”

We gave Antonio ‘fair enough’ nods. He was right; we couldn’t place an assignment before our Binding, no matter how delicate this particular assignment was. That simply made me more determined to end it tonight.

Okay, so the plan had been simple enough. Using the same technique we used at the secluded bungalow, we get inside, kill the occupants, and rescue anyone that needed rescuing, if applicable.

Of course, at first we needed to find out just how many people were inside, where exactly they were, and what it was they were doing. That was where Stuart would come in. From the roof of the late night café on the corner of the avenue, we had been able to tell that the gated house had plenty of security cameras. That wouldn’t be an issue as nobody monitoring the footage would notice Stuart travelling around as molecules. His role was to get inside, investigate, and report back with whatever information he found.

There turned out to be a huge problem with that.

“What do you mean you can’t get near the house?” I asked him. Jared and the squad all huddled closer on the roof.

Stuart looked at me helplessly. “The building’s surrounded by some kind of psychic alarm. I might not have noticed it, but a guy in the legion has the same gift and he’s placed one around his apartment so that if anyone even gets close to his door, the activity will trigger the alarm. You can’t see the alarm, but it makes a really low buzzing sound. I probably would have ignored the noise if it hadn’t been so familiar.”

Harvey flapped his arms. “So now what?”

“There’s something you guys should know,” began Stuart. “I heard two voices talking. One of the windows had been slightly open. Anyone passing wouldn’t have heard it…if they hadn’t been a vampire. They were talking about picking up a ‘package’ shortly to take to ‘Moira’, and that ‘the boss’ was impatient. They were also frustrated that some of the other ‘Docs’ hadn’t contacted them with a ‘package’ yet.”

“He obviously means Erik, Sandra, and Mitch, then,” said Jude, her eyes gleaming. The woman knew justice was close, and it was making her both anxious and restless.

“By package, they clearly mean they’re going to pick up another baby soon.” Jared sighed. “Well, if we can’t get in there, maybe the best thing would be to wait for them to come out. Then we follow them. We let them lead us to Moira and Lynne.”

“And we stop that baby from being sold,” stated Jude.

Jared nodded. “This ends tonight.”

Enter the new plan…

That plan entailed me sitting in the passenger seat of a car that Jared had parked outside the café. Courtesy of the vampires that Antonio sent, we were in possession of four cars that had been ‘borrowed’ for the night. It was a given that if we screwed this up and the vampires realised that someone was onto them, they would disappear and we might possibly lose any chance of getting to them or the person behind the op. Worse still, that would mean not only would babies continue to go missing and their mothers be killed, but we would be unable to track the children that had already been sold. None of that was acceptable to any of us.

With all that in mind, it was agreed that in order to follow the Handlers without attracting their attention, we would need to be extremely careful. While watching from a car seemed beyond cliché and could often attract suspicion, Chico had been right when he said that a car parked outside a café wasn’t going to look suspicious. As an added precaution, he had instructed me to go shotgun, reading a newspaper; that way, it would simply look as though I was waiting for someone.

Inside the café, Jared was having a coffee at one of the tables near the window with David and Butch, who would soon be using the car that was parked beside mine. All three of them were very subtly monitoring the target. Of course, a human would have extreme difficulties with monitoring from such a long distance, but our enhanced vision gave us that advantage. What we had to bear in mind was that Zeke and Blake also had that advantage and would be able to see us as clearly as we could see them – hence all the cautiousness.

Helping the situation, Stuart and Denny were hovering near the house in their alternate forms, ready to report back with any movement from inside the building. As the house was on a one-way street, it had made it possible for Chico and Jude to wait in another vehicle around the corner – the Handlers’ car would have to drive in their direction, and so Chico could pick up the tailing from there.

Salem and Reuben were waiting at the bus stop that was one hundred yards in front of Chico’s car, who would pick them up as he passed by. Chico felt that for all four of them to be sitting in the car on watch would attract the attention of passers-by or neighbours, and attention wasn’t what we needed. I wasn’t all that convinced that so much cautiousness was necessary, but as he had been on stakeouts before, I trusted his intuition. Apparently, he had been on a couple of stake-outs that had been ruined by simply a nosy old woman seeing a strange car parked near her home. These days, people were wary of strangers hanging around. They had every reason to be.

Max, Harvey, and Damien were sitting in another car in the parking lot of a store located not far away, awaiting telepathic contact from Jared. Basically, everyone was in position, and all we needed now was for the Handlers to get moving.

Soon enough, a trail of molecules entered through the open window of the car. Taking a sneak peek around me and satisfied that no one would see anything, I quietly said, “You can change back.”

A second later, Stuart was lounging on the backseat with his head rested on his hand. “We have movement. The two guys from Ryder’s sketches were putting jackets on and switching off the T.V. I reckon they’ll leave any minute now. From what I could gather, they’re the only people in the house.”

Time to move, I told Jared.

Quickly yet still managing to appear casual, he, Butch, and David abandoned their coffees and headed for the door. They would have managed not to attract any attention if they all weren’t so bloody gorgeous. One of the women in the café actually said something to Jared as he passed, which I imagined was a line of some kind.

“Slut.” I hadn’t realised I’d spoken aloud until Stuart started laughing. I shot him a scowl, but he just laughed harder. “Your time will come, Stuart. Then I’ll be the one laughing.” He just gave me a dismissive, ‘sure, sure’ look.

A little of my irritation must have been showing on my face, because the first thing Jared did when he hopped inside the car was give me one of his ‘whatever it is, I didn’t do it’ looks. I merely snorted.

“They’re leaving,” announced Stuart. We all looked in time to see two male vampires exit the house.

“Those are definitely the guys from the sketches,” stated Jared. “I’ll warn Chico and all the others to get ready to move.”

Obviously having heard Jared’s telepathic announcement, Denny travelled in his alternate form to the car beside ours, wherein Butch and David were already waiting. Once inside it, he returned to his human shape on the backseat.

We all remained very still as the Handlers’ black SUV drove by. I had no idea whether or not they took a look at us, because I focused on my newspaper to avoid any chance of eye contact. When I saw in my peripheral vision that they had turned the corner, I looked up again. It was only then that Jared – having known better than to immediately slip behind the SUV – started the car. At a steady pace, he exited the car parking lot and followed after the SUV. Butch kept close behind us.

As Jared drove along another street, keeping a fair distance between us and the Handlers, my enhanced vision was able to spot Chico’s car up ahead, tailing the SUV from the front. I guessed that was one way to avoid suspicion, though following from the front seemed a little complicated to me.

A left turn took us all onto a very busy road.

Jared exhaled a loud sound of annoyance. “We could have done without the heavy traffic.”

He was right. Keeping the vehicle in sight would be much easier for us, but that didn’t mean we could afford to leave a lengthy distance between us and them. Doing that would be to risk losing them in the traffic. So, as advised by Chico, Jared kept two car spaces between us and the Handlers as he drove. He was careful not to remain directly behind them by changing lanes every now and then. At one point, Max and Butch positioned the cars either side of the Handlers, so that we had all effectively boxed the SUV in.

About ten minutes into the pursuit, we came to a roundabout. Startling the hell out of me – and I’m pretty sure it equally startled the others – the Handlers didn’t take the first, second, third, or final turn; they instead continued to circle the roundabout…leaving us no choice but to drive on ahead of them, or expose that we were following them. Bollocks.

Chico, too, had been forced to take the final turn or expose himself. In the visor, I was able to see that the SUV actually circled the roundabout three times. At that point, they then took the same turn that we had taken, placing them six car spaces behind us.

Stuart took the words out of my mouth. “What the hell was all that about?”

“Chico thinks they’re testing to see if anybody’s following them,” said Jared.

“They’ve sensed that they have a tail?”

“It’s more likely that they’re doing a standard test. Chico said a lot of guys do things like quickly change their course, or enter a public building.”

I thought it wasn’t a bad idea, actually. “Circling a roundabout…I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

“Chico’s pulled over up ahead,” Jared told us. “He’s going to fall in from behind and take our place at the rear of the Handlers. We’re going to now take his place at the front.”

“Oh, right,” I said. “I suppose the question is, though…how do you follow someone from the front?”

“Well, according to Chico, I shouldn’t watch for signals. He says that most drivers take a couple of seconds before flashing the light to signal that they’re turning. I should watch the driver and the tyres.” So that was exactly what Jared did. And he did pretty well at it. That was most likely a lot to do with the fact that Jared’s vision enabled him to observe very well.

But then the Handlers turned down a side-street.

“Shit,” Jared uttered.

“It’s okay. Chico or one of the others can stick with them.” But Stuart was wrong. Chico didn’t stick with the Handlers. He instead stopped just before reaching the corner, where Salem hopped out and proceeded to follow the Handlers on foot.

Having crossed the intersecting street, Jared made a somewhat illegal U-turn and drove down the opposite side. He parked outside a Chinese takeaway, placing him parallel with Chico. It was at that moment that Salem had returned to Chico’s car.

“They’ve parked at the end of the one-way street,” revealed Jared, obviously having telepathically heard the info from Salem. “Apparently there’s a white van waiting there. A van that looks a lot like the mobile hospital that Erik had.”

“Stuart, time to go spying.” My announcement was met with an excited smile. Then Stuart reduced himself to molecules that went zooming out of the slightly open window and across the road. “Where are Max and Butch?” I asked Jared.

“One of them is parked at the end of this road, and the other is waiting at the end of the other side.”

I understood why; this way, both possible routes that the Handlers could take were covered.

“Nervous?” Jared suddenly asked me, and I understood that he wasn’t talking about the assignment.

I smiled. “Not in a way that means I’m unsure. But I’m nervous of being the centre of attention. And of seeing the dress that Fletcher played a part in designing.”

Jared’s brows arched. “He did? Good. I always like the stuff that Fletcher picks out for you.”

“That’s because you’re a pervert.”

He gave me an unapologetic, devilish grin. “So you’re not going to try to run on me?”

I shook my head, still smiling. “You’re stuck with me.”

“I like being stuck to you.”

Just then, the molecules returned to the backseat. “They’ve just collected their ‘package’,” revealed Stuart, angrily, once he shifted back. “How can people sell babies? How can they kill their mothers and sell their babies? It’s fucking sick.”

“You’d be surprised what people would do for money,” said Jared, “especially those who want it there and now – which seems to be the case with the vampire running this op. He wants a lot of cash, and he wants it fast. I’m guessing he has to be young in vampire years. The longer a vampire has lived, the more time he’s had to accumulate money. An older vampire wouldn’t need to do this, or to take these kinds of risks.”

Stuart leaned forward. “Do you think he wants it fast because he needs it fast?”

“No. Maybe he was used to a certain lifestyle as a human and he wants it back. I’m willing to bet that he was involved in criminal activity as a human and this is the only way of life he knows.”

“Good theory. Hey, maybe when he was a human he was involved in an operation where he had a role similar to Wendy’s, and maybe he saw too much and they Turned him rather than kill him.”

“Maybe,” allowed Jared. He stiffened as he added, “We have movement.”

The Handlers turned out of the side street and crossed the intersection, placing them on our side of the road.

I took a long breath. “Right, let’s go slaughter the fuckers.”

Jared slipped behind the SUV. “Sounds like fun.”

As before, he kept two car spaces between us and them as we followed the SUV down more roads. It wasn’t long before Chico was once again in front of them, and Max and Butch had taken a place on either side of them. Jared did all the usual things; he sped up when he needed to, he slowed down when necessary, and he switched lanes often. Always he managed to keep the Handlers in sight, and all without drawing attention to himself.

Things got a little worrying, though, when we started to enter a rural area. Although, on the upside, it meant that the traffic wasn’t hectic, it also meant that we would stand out more. Obviously sensing my concern, Jared spoke reassuringly.

“It’s okay. Chico’s giving me some advice.” Listening to that advice, Jared kept a reasonable distance between us and the SUV as he drove; only closing some of that distance when turning corners so that he didn’t lose sight of the SUV. Once back on a straight section, he pulled back, giving them a wide berth again.

Butch and Max followed that same example, keeping far behind us, as parallel surveillance would arouse suspicion at this point. The thing with rural areas was that everybody tended to know everybody, and strange vehicles would attract attention. Four strange vehicles…Not great.

“We need to all split up,” I said. “The next time we come across somewhere that would be a good idea to park and conceal the cars, tell them to pull in. We’ll catch up with them after we’ve seen where the Handlers stop.”

Jared nodded. “Good idea.” He was quiet for a short moment, and I knew he was communicating with the others. “I’ve also told them that if we see another good hiding area on our way, we’ll tell them to head to there.”

About fifteen minutes later, the SUV took a right turning. Jared sped up until he reached the corner.

“It’s some sort of converted farmhouse,” said Stuart.

Rather than stopping, Jared kept going straight.

“Want me to go take a closer look?” At Jared’s nod, Stuart switched to his other form and flew out of the window.

Jared puffed out a long breath, clearly agitated. “There’s nowhere to park around here. Not unless we want to stick out like a sore thumb, anyway.”

“Maybe we should head back to the others. The campground they stopped at isn’t that far away. It’s not like we can’t get back here quickly if we need to.”

Nodding, Jared did a U-turn and passed the farmhouse. “Stuart said there’s no psychic alarm around the house.”

Good. “I suppose that means that it wasn’t a precaution for all those involved in the op, it was simply added to the Handlers’ home.”

“It’s most likely Zeke’s gift as we know Blake’s gift is to mess with memories.”

I was about to say something else, but Jared held up his index finger, gesturing for me to wait. I guessed he was talking to someone telepathically so I remained quiet, waiting for him to finally pass on the info.

“Stuart said there are two female vampires in there, who I’m guessing are Lynne and Moira. He said there are also five male vampires – he’s not sure whether they’re serving as guards, but if they are, they’re not acting very vigilant. That means that, with Zeke and Blake, we’re facing nine vampires in total. I’d say we have a very good chance of ending this now.”

“The rest of the squad will be happy to hear that.” It turned out that I was right. They were extremely happy to hear that, as was Jude.

She made a good point, though, when we were discussing strategies. “I’m not comfortable with having a big battle around a baby.”

I sighed as I leaned back against one of the cars. “Neither am I.”

“Then our priority has to be to get the baby out of there, and to do it fast,” said Jared.

Harvey, who was standing beside him, nodded. “Like in paintballing.”

My brows flew up. “Say again?”

“During our first round of paintballing, our objective was to get inside a building, obtain something, and quickly get it out again, right? This is pretty much the same.” That was my Harvey – full of ideas.

“Very true,” said Jared, looking impressed. “So, we cover the fastest here – which is, hands down, Butch – while he slips in and out with the baby.”

“The vampires in there will surround the house as best they can,” Chico pointed out, “which means they might not be so preoccupied with the baby.”

Another good point. “I say we split into teams of two like we did at paintballing, but this time we work together. We come at the rear of the house from either side. The attack will not only mean the death of those vampires, but it will provide the perfect distraction for Butch.”

Jared nodded. “Most importantly, we move now in case the Handlers decide to leave soon.”

After Jared had relayed the plan to Stuart via telepathy, we all abandoned the four cars at the campground – planning to return to them after the attack. Quickly and stealthily, we made our way to the trees that surrounded the farmhouse.

Time to split up, Jared told me. Stay safe, baby.

You, too. Oh, and keep an eye on Jude. We don’t want her doing anything stupid.

Don’t hesitate to call on Dexter if you need to. It was an order. It was an order because he knew me well enough to guess that I was too protective of Dexter to want to expose him to this kind of danger. Yeah, I know that might sound kind of backwards since Dexter was supposed to be there to protect me. But every time I recalled him limp on the floor after a harsh blow from Magda, I felt ill.

Fine, I lied, knowing Jared would push if I didn’t give him an answer.

I know that you’re lying. Christ, you’re so damn stubborn.

Then why bother me? Ignoring his flow of curses, I led my team – Chico, Butch, Salem, David, and Harvey – to the trees that were on the left of the large stretch of land at the rear of the house. That placed us directly opposite the rest of the team, who were hiding in the trees parallel to ours. Despite my enhanced vision, I wasn’t able to spot any of them – not even the glow that would undoubtedly be coming from their irises.

It was as I sat there studying my surroundings that I realised something; due to the many acres of land around us, this place looked a lot like an open field. The same open field that Luther had seen in his vision? I’d like to think not, but it wouldn’t surprise me. In fact, I’d suspected that the attack in his vision would be something to do with the op. I’d just kind of hoped I was wrong. Great.

Although I heard two vehicles approaching in the distance, it didn’t occur to me that the cars might be intending to stop at the farmhouse. Why would it? None of the others that had approached had stopped here. But not only did one of these particular cars do so, they both did.

I cursed silently. Nobody liked a spanner in the works, especially when the plan was ready to put into action. Indicating for the team to remain in position, I silently hurried toward the trees that were closer to the front of the house. My new Pagori speed got me there in an instant. It still felt strange to be so much stronger, but at this particular moment, I wasn’t going to gripe about it.

From my hiding spot, I could see that two cars had parked beside the Handlers’ SUV. Four male Pagoris exited one vehicle, but didn’t pass by the other; instead they waited just behind it. It seemed to be a gesture of respect, an acceptance of their position in the hierarchy of vampires there.

Two vampires exited the other car, and one of them then went to the rear door and opened it courteously. It was reasonable to assume, then, that this just might be ‘the boss’. Well that would make sense. The only thing left to happen at this stage of the operation would be for the baby to be handed over to the Buyer, and it was probable that he would wish to be present at each transaction. This worked out quite nicely, as it meant we could kill him.

I cursed again when who was potentially ‘the boss’ exited the car.

Obviously sensing the cocktail of surprise, agitation, and anger circulating through me, Jared asked, What’s the matter?

Their boss has arrived, and he’s brought seven vampires with him. But that wasn’t what had me feeling enraged. The rage was owed to the fact that we knew this person, we’d been in their presence, and had we known that they were behind the op, we could have ended this some time ago. At the idea of that, nausea swirled around my stomach.

What is it?