Part 6
Three days later I stood in front of Cassandra Robinsons house with my sister, Jamie and Felix in tow. I wore an immaculate pastel pink suit jacket with matching pencil skirt and heels. A cream scarf was wound elegantly around my neck and my hair was put neatly up.
Harry had insisted that we stay at his place whilst we planned the operation. I was reluctant to trust him to that extent, but since it saved us trying to find a better place I had agreed. Jamie had recovered a great deal in the short space of time, to the point that even I was a little surprised.
We had spent much of the time stalking Cassandra. I didn’t want any surprises so I wanted to know as much about her routine as possible. We had gotten lucky the day before, as by chance Beatrice had heard her mention to her co-worker that it was her day off tomorrow. I had decided it was time to act.
That night I had gone out and stolen appropriate attire for us all. It was important that none of the neighbours noticed anything unusual in case the authorities were alerted. No one would look twice at a group of higher class smartly dressed individuals being welcomed into the house. The houses were spaced far enough apart that it would be difficult for anyone to get a close look at us.
Jamie looked extremely good in a suit. I was trying not to distract myself by noticing, but it was true. I should definitely find a way to get him into one more often. But back to business; pressing the doorbell I waited in anticipation.
The door was answered by the housekeeper. Wasting no time I quickly caught her gaze;
“Smile and let us in.” I hissed. Mindlessly obeying my implanted command, a big if slightly empty smile spread across the small women’s face as she stepped back and pulled the door wide. I was a little sorry for using her in in such a way but I was reluctant to leave anything to doubt.
“Nicole? Who was at the door?” the voice of Cassandra Robinson echoed down the stairs.
The housekeeper, Nicole, looked confused. “I… don’t…”
Looking into her eyes I said “it was just a salesman.”
“It was just a salesman!” she called, echoing me.
“Now you want to go and clean the lounge,” I instructed, “Ignore us, we are not important. We belong here.” Wordlessly she turned and headed into the other room, already forgetting our presence.
Signalling to the others that they should wait a moment before following me, I made my way soundlessly up the staircase. Using my keen sense of hearing I located the room the woman was occupying. She sat at a desk facing away from the door, writing a note on a sheet of paper. Her laptop sat open next to her. It was clear that she wasn’t planning on heading out soon, since her hair was down and a little messy. She wore expensive but comfortable looking jeans and an old shirt. I knew she wouldn’t be seen dead like that in public. Besides, we already knew she didn’t have work that day.
Before she was aware of what was happening I was behind her with one hand around her throat and another over her mouth.
“Hello Cassandra.” I whispered into her ear, “or can I call you Cassie? Do your friends call you Cassie?” She let out a wordless shout which was muffled by my hand. “Now,” I said, tightening my grip a little. “There are some things I want you to do for me.”
I was surprised at the hatred I felt for this women who I had never met. She had been a prominent face in the media the past few days, and everything she had to say about my kind had been negative. She had done nothing but stir the fear and anger until almost everyone it seemed wanted us dead.
“Can you access government files from this computer?” I asked. She tried to shake her head but I stopped her. “I think you’re lying to me Cassandra.” Beatrice, Felix and Jamie silently entered the room behind us and shut the door. “Now, I’m going to let go of your mouth and you’re not going to scream ok?” she nodded.
Satisfied I released her and spun her chair around to face me. At the sight of my face her eyes widened in horror.
“Vampire!” she exclaimed. All at once she began to cry. With trembling fingers she fumbled for the small shiny cross around her neck and held it towards me. “Get away!”
I raised my eyebrows in amusement “Seriously?” I drew out the cross around my own neck and showed it to her, letting it catch the light for a moment before I tucked it back into my shirt. “God’s not the one with a problem with us.” I didn’t know that for certain of course, but I did know that the cross had no effect on me whatsoever.
“Even so, this is still effective!” without warning she lunged at me, pressing the small piece of mental hard against my face.
With a shriek of pain I threw her away from me, causing her to land hard on the floor. Silver; I had been stupid not to have seen that coming. Scrabbling quickly to her feet, her eyes darted around the room in panic. I watched as she realised that all escape routes were blocked off, as she backed as far as possible away from us.
Glancing in the mirror on the wall I frowned at the cross- shaped, red raw mark on my cheek. “That wasn’t nice.”
Her lips twisted in disgust, “You don’t deserve niceness.”
My desire to question her beliefs overrode my desire to quickly get the job done; “and why is that?” I asked, “isn’t it basic human courtesy to be nice, or at least civil to people?”
“You are neither human, nor a person.” She retorted coldly.
Before I had a chance to reply to this Jamie stepped forward. I watched as her gaze flitted to him and I knew she saw what I did. Despite his recent injury his skin had a warm and healthy glow to it; his eyes were calm and almost friendly. There was just something indefinable about him that screamed human.
“As a fellow human, I think you should know that I was once in your position.” He said, “Or worse I think. I was a vampire hunter long before all of this started and it was my life.” He smiled a little sadly, “I truly believed that killing vampires was the right thing to do.” when he glanced at me I met his gaze, smiling in reassurance. I knew his history was probably painful to think about now. “But it turned out I was wrong. Very, very wrong in fact. I know now that vampires are people, just like the rest us. They can think, fear, hate and love… same as any human.”
She looked at him scornfully; “I’m sure you may once have been a decent boy… but I’m sad to say you have been corrupted by them. You’ve fallen for their tricks and lies. They don’t really care about you at all, it’s all an act.”
Before I had the chance to tell Jamie that she wasn’t worth the effort, the soft thudding of helicopter blades caught my attention. The sound was getting louder by the second, indicating the aircraft was approaching rapidly. The wail of multiple sirens suddenly broke out as cars screeched into the street both in front and behind the house. Clever; they had snuck up on us, allowing me to assume that the cars were just part of normal traffic until they had us surrounded. I cursed myself for not listening closer. Risking a glance out of my window I watched as countless armed police and to my slight surprise army men set up a perimeter. It didn’t take long for numerous weapons to be pointed in the direction of the building.
For an instant we all stood there in shock, completely taken by surprise.
“Well shit.” Felix muttered.
“How the hell did they know we were here?” Beatrice demanded angrily.
“I don’t know.” I said, narrowing my eyes at Cassandra. She tried to avoid me as I moved forward but it didn’t stop me grapping get roughly and slamming her into the wall. The mirror next to her shook and fell from the wall, shattering into a million pieces. “Did you contact them?”
She was shaking her head in fear; “No, I didn’t! I swear!”
“Are you-”
Jamie cut me off, “Jade! Look!”
Turning my gaze to where he was pointing, I saw that where I had knocked the mirror down there was a small hole in the wall. Dropping Cassandra, I leaned in to examine it further. Inside there was a tiny camera and microphone. When the mirror was in place the overly decorative frame would have hidden it with enough room for the camera to see through gaps in the metalwork.
“Damn it! They’re watching the house!”
“At least lover boy here has been telling them nice things with his little speech.” Muttered Felix.
Angrily I pulled the device from the wall and crushed it in my hand, before rounding on him. “That little speech just told them exactly who we are!” I snapped. I’d been forced into killing a lot of hunters lately. If they knew about that, they weren’t going to be happy.
The whole fiasco with the club was partially my fault too, since I’d accidentally led them there with the tracker in Jamie’s arm. I wasn’t sure how closely the hunter’s would work with the government, but I was developing suspicions towards exactly where they got their funding from.
The first helicopter was joined by a second and I sighed. There were few options on what to do. We couldn’t run; there was no way Jamie could keep up. I couldn’t risk him getting injured again either, there would be no guarantee he would survive a second time.
I knew from experience that hostage situations didn’t usually turn out too well, so I didn’t fancy even trying to go down that route. I sighed, the plan forming in my head did not seem like the best idea I had ever had.
“What are we going to do? Beatrice demanded, her voice brittle.
I smiled grimly. “I can only see one option.” I glanced at Jamie who was watching me anxiously, “I’m going to surrender.”
“What! No way!” Jamie’s expression was furious as he moved to grip my shoulders. “You can’t do that.”
I pulled him closer to me so I could whisper in his ear. The vampires would be able to hear me but Cassandra would not. “If I surrender they should arrest me. They will take me to wherever it is they are keeping the others. If we try to fight our way out of this someone will get hurt.” I met his eyes with my own, reading his worry and concern. I took a second to steady myself, breathing in his clean warm scent to calm my nerves. “They’ll underestimate me. People always do. I will escape.”
He shook his head and gripped me tightly, “No, we can’t risk it.”
I swallowed, “We must.”
“Fine then,” he said, “But I’m coming with you.”
“No!”
“Where else am I gonna go anyway? It’s not like they’re all going to just leave once they take you!”
I had hoped Beatrice and Felix could somehow get him out whilst they were distracted with me. I knew really that it was a foolish plan from the start though. I sighed, “Ok, we’ll go out together.”
Beatrice stepped forward and grabbed my hand, “I’ll come with you too.”
Shaking my head I said “No, escape. I will see you again soon. Someone has to be free to help stop this nonsense.” I hugged her close and lowered my voice, “Whilst I’m away I want you to try and get some of the media on our side. Be careful, don’t make yourself a target. Just speak to whoever will listen. Make them see that vampires are not all bad.”
The instructions I gave her were things that I had actually planned to do myself eventually. But since I would be unable, I had to hope she would be up for the task. I squeezed her tight. “Love you Bee.”
“I love you too” she said quietly as I let go. Stepping away I took Jamie’s hand.
I met Felix’s dark gaze before I looked back at my sister, “Try to sneak away whilst they are distracted by us.”
Suddenly an idea came to mind. Taking out my small phone I looked at it. They would be sure to take it off me if I kept it. Unless… tipping my head back I shoved it down my throat. Resisting the natural urge to choke I forced it down with my fingers. A human probably never would have managed but it came in handy that I didn’t need to breathe. It also probably wasn’t healthy to have a phone in your stomach but I doubted it would cause me any too serious problems. It probably wouldn’t last long in their though. The acid in my stomach would be too strong. I looked up at the others watching me in horror; “See if you can get that tracked. In case you want to know where the base is.”
She nodded. Pushing my shoulders back I turned towards the door. “I’ll see you soon.”