Chapter 4 - Purgatory

WARNING: This chapter contains strong language and sexual innuendos!

Cynthia’s shift ended at 3 in the morning. Before that time, she’d been ogled, groped, cat called to, and even dry humped by some drunk douchebag. It was a relief to get out of there.

Allanna always met her at the door, and then they’d walk to her car together and head back home to Duskwood. But tonight was different. Allanna wasn’t at the door.

“Maybe she’s running late,” Cynthia wondered to herself, ignoring more cat calls from behind her (some of which were for her, while most were directed at the new girl on the pole).

Still, Allanna had never been late picking her up before. And she would have called had she known. Cynthia’s animal instincts were kicking in, and she started to get a bad feeling.

After 30 minutes, Allanna still hadn’t arrived. Calling her cell phone just sent Cynthia to voice mail. Something wasn’t right.

Exiting the Strip Tease, Cynthia headed toward the parking garage where Allanna usually ended up parking. The early morning air was a little cooler; perhaps she’d decided to stay in the car.

But why wouldn’t she have just called and told her that? Maybe her cell phone was dead.

The scent hit her like a bullet. She could smell Allanna. Cynthia scurried toward the source of the smell, and found herself staring down the same alley where she and her friend had almost been assaulted just last night.

Turning down that alley, Cynthia then caught another whiff. The pungent, acrid aroma of a blood-sucking vampire. Its stench not only matched the one of the vampire they’d encountered last night, but it also seemed to copulate with Allanna’s scent.

Breaking into a run, Cynthia hurried toward the parking garage, trying not to transform into a wolf so she’d move faster. When she found Allanna’s car still parked in the garage, she was certain – Allanna had been abducted.

Not wasting any time, she hurried back to the alley to keep the scent fresh in her mind, then grabbed her cell phone and started dialing. Darius needed to know about this.

********************

“Well done, Xavier,” Mortius said with pleasure as he stared at the young woman lying on the old bed. “You finally managed to capture the beast that’s eluded you for quite some time.”

“Patience is a virtue, Mortius. Remember, good things come to those that wait.”

“I’ve many years to wait, but I still get impatient. I want those things extinct, permanently.”

“If this plan doesn’t accomplish that, nothing will.”

The two vampires burst into loud guffaws. Xavier had been assigned to abduct the bitch daughter of the werewolf pack leader, and he would guard her to make sure she didn’t escape. Mortius was going to use her as a bargaining chip to get those filthy mutts out of their territory. Duskwood rightfully belonged to the vampires, but those savages refused to leave. If they wouldn’t listen to reason, then perhaps they’d listen to ransom.

Xavier had been chosen to perform both the kidnapping and guarding duties because he, apart from Mortius, was one of the strongest vampires of the Duskwood clan. He was also one of the youngest, only a little over a hundred years old. That made him even more agile for the job, despite not having as many mind tricks as an elder vampire.

Mortius left, leaving Xavier alone with the pack leader’s daughter. He couldn’t suppress a smile as he stared down at her, knocked out cold. The plan was to use her as leverage to get the mutts out of Duskwood, but the joke would be on them – they’d never get the chance to leave Duskwood, because they’d be wiped out entirely. There wasn’t room in this world for two mythical species. One of them had to go.

********************

Allanna could hear the voices in the back of her mind, but she thought she was dreaming. When she opened her eyes at last, she found herself staring at filthy walls, and she felt like she’d been run over by a truck.

Her head swam as she sat up, blinking profusely. The room was faintly lit and the smell wasn’t appealing.

The smell…Allanna jerked her head toward the door and saw the source of that grotesque odor.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, her voice hoarse.

The leech just smirked and said, “I’m just sitting here.”

“Where the hell am I?”

“You’re safe, in this nice little haven. Consider it a suburb of Duskwood.”

“You’re really stupid to have brought me here, you know that? I’ll just rip your guts out and get out of here.” Allanna jumped off the bed.

“I don’t think so,” the blood-sucker said as he withdrew a pistol from inside his shirt. “I’ve got plenty of silver bullets to go around. You try to leave, it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Allanna growled. She could transform into a wolf, but that wouldn’t do her any good if silver was involved. The only known way to kill a werewolf was the traditional silver bullet, but any amount of silver would do the job if enough got into the bloodstream. If a werewolf was killed in wolf form, they’d revert back to their human form. However, if one was killed in their human form, nothing would happen, but they were weaker as humans because any weapon would severely hurt them.

But werewolves had advanced healing powers, which resulted in their bones and tissues repairing themselves almost instantly if they were hurt. Of course, a shot to the head or anything that severed the spine would be an instant death, and the rapid healing would be futile.

Silver was the worst. It spread through the bloodstream too quickly for her kind’s healing powers to be effective. How did that even happen, anyway? It didn't even matter that she wasn't tied up - she was still bound here by that threatening gun, trapped here in a makeshift purgatory, held captive by her arch enemy. But for what purpose?

“It’s it obvious?” the annoying cretin said dubiously. “Your kind won’t accept the fact that Duskwood rightfully belongs to us, therefore you’re reluctant to leave. I think a little old fashioned ransom threat to the pack leader regarding his eldest child might get the message across, wouldn’t you agree?”

“You bastard. How did you even know that?”

“We’re very intelligent creatures, us vampires. We observe things. Besides, it wasn’t hard to find out about your grandfather.”

Allanna ground her teeth together. “Fuck you, you son of a bitch. It’s because of you blood-sucking assholes that my grandfather’s dead. That land was his and he fought for it, and he won it.”

“He didn’t fight for it, he found it and tried to steal it. Duskwood rightfully belongs to us.”

“Bullshit!”

Allanna jumped off the bed and ran toward the smug looking urchin, her body beginning to transform.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said as he grabbed her wrist in lightning-fast speed and squeezed it so hard she felt a bone break.

“Damn you!” she yelled as she teetered backward, cradling her broken wrist in her hand.

“You’re lucky that’ll heal up easily thanks to your kind’s mending powers. But if you’re going to be that way, I think we’d best find a more suitable location for you.”

The irksome vampire then grabbed Allanna by her other wrist and pulled her toward a trapdoor in the floor. He hurled her down it, then jumped in after her. He then shuffled her through a tunnel despite her protests and curses, finally ending up in front of what looked like an old dungeon door.

He pushed it inward and beyond that door was a large room, in the corner of which was a sealed off area full of silver bars. That area had a small bed in it but nothing more. There was a worn-out sofa on the outside of the bars and shattered dishes were scattered across the floor.

The vampire threw Allanna into the silver cage and snapped a lock shut. He still had the gun in the back of his pants, and he used a small water pump to fill a filthy looking bowl with water before placing it inside Allanna’s makeshift cage, slamming and locking the door shut once more before she could escape.

“Here you go,” he said with an amused look on his face. “The doggy needs water.”

“Go to hell.”

The vampire threw his head back and laughed. “You could have stayed in that nice little shack, but you had to cause a fuss. Now you have to stay here. We had this room made especially for you. I think it suits you well.”

“I swear, when I get out of here, I’m going to rip your dick off and shove it down your throat so far you’ll choke on it. Of course, it’s probably so small, that wouldn’t work, so I’d have to make you suffer some other way.”

“Oh trust me, if you stuck my bad boy down my throat, I’d be dead in seconds.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

The leech just laughed again, pushing Allanna over the edge. Since he found her so amusing as a human, maybe she’d be less entertaining, and more menacing, as a wolf.

She knelt down on the ground and let the transformation take her. Doing so shredded her clothes, but she had no desire of turning back into a human until she was out of this hellhole, so there was no need to worry about being seen naked.

Allanna jumped onto the bed and put her head in her paws. The vampire expressed more amusement when he saw her transform, and he was obviously reading her thoughts about her now useless clothes since he had a snide grin on his face.

How was she even supposed to think with that thing sitting so close to her, and with the ability to read her thoughts? More importantly, how was she going to get out of here?