Order Restored (Excerpt)

THREE

3

Everything inside me screamed to run to Jesse, but my body refused to show any sign of excitement. Instead, I took my time getting to his side and bent at the waist to look at him. “Hey…”

Blue, glazed eyes squinted at me. “Liana?”

I removed the ski mask so he could see my face. There were many things I wanted to tell him, still no word left my lips. A marble statue would have been more expressive.

“I knew you’d come…” he said. “You shouldn’t have…”

I fought back a grimace at his welcoming, part of me agreeing with him. But I hadn’t done it on purpose. It had been an accident. We were looking for the entrance to the new breeds’ lair, not for him in particular. At least this was the official mission.

“How are you?” I asked, kneeling to take a closer look.

Before he could answer, I turned his head around, taking the matter in my hands. There was dried blood on the left side of his head, but no actual wound underneath. I pulled on the collar of his shirt and found the same thing there—dried blood on his neck, but no ugly fang wound.

“I’m fine, considering…” Jesse said.

He wasn’t. I didn’t have to be a doctor to know that. His eyes were unfocused and his forehead was covered in sweat. I removed my glove and touched it. He winced at the contact with my cold hand. His face was burning up. Not good, not good at all.

“They healed you,” I murmured, frowning. Then why did he have a fever? Vampire blood should have taken care of that. What else was wrong with him?

“Yeah, well… they don’t feed us so they have to do something to keep us alive.” He grimaced with resignation.

No food at all?  I was appalled. How long could a human body survive relying only on vampire blood to cover its basic needs? Apparently, long enough. The new breeds weren’t turning them because the blood would be no good for feeding if they did. So they kept the prisoners sedated and half-freezing. The two portable radiators set inside the cave did little to improve the living conditions. It wasn’t as cold as outside, but close.

“It’s good to see you,” he said with a weak smile, glassy eyes lingering on my face. I looked away, unable to return the compliment. “What happened to your face?”

Ah, so there was a bruise forming on my cheek. Oh, well, he’d seen me in worse shape.

“I fell,” I deadpanned and pulled on the chains to test their resistance. I had to get him out of here. Those summer clothes he wore failed to keep him warm, and there were no blankets around. Of course, that was the least of our worries. Vampire blood would prevent him from getting pneumonia, but too much biting did much worse. I pulled harder on the chains.

“No use…” Jesse said. “I tried that too, and they’re human proof.” The blood coating his wrists under the manacles stood proof for that.

Maybe, but that looked like ordinary iron, not even steel, and that meant it wasn’t bullet proof. I happened to have a gun with explosive bullets tucked into my belt, so the chains weren’t a problem. I wondered how far the sound of a gunshot would carry in those caves. Who might it alert and how fast was their reaction time? Rather fast, I reckoned.

“What can you tell me about their organization?” I asked, reaching for his wrist to check his pulse. It felt weird to have the roles reversed as he usually did that for me, but I didn’t like the way he looked. His skin was cold and clammy, both from the vampire venom withdrawal and the cold. In fact, he looked worse than the other prisoners, but at least he was awake.