CHAPTER 31:

JADEN’S  POV:

The call comes as soon as the sun is gone from the horizon.  My caller ID says that it’s Mason.  I answer it quickly, “Everything alright?”

“She’s gone.”

I go completely still, “How?”

“I don’t know.  When I woke up, she was just gone.”

“Didn’t you tie her up?” I say in a deceptively calm voice. 

“Of course I did.  I don’t understand it, the keys are still here.  So is my wallet.  If she were going to make a run for it, why wouldn’t she take these?”

“Maybe she went out for some fresh air,” I stupidly suggest.

From the other end, I can hear Mason moving about the hotel room.  “Oh shit.”

“What do you mean oh shit?” I ask anxiously, throwing my legs over the side of the bed.   

Mason groans, “There’s damage to the hotel room door.  Like it was kicked in.”

As if on cue, my phone beeps, I have another call coming through.  I pull it back from my ear to see who’s calling.  It’s the main line coming from my parents’ home.  What a coincidence, I think sarcastically. 

Without taking the time to explain, I hang up on my call with Mason.  Answering the new call, I come to my feet, bracing myself for what’s to come, “Where is she?”

“Sweetheart,” my mother’s voice comes from the other line, “We have been assured that she is perfectly safe.  She’s resting comfortably in one of the guest rooms.  Poor thing, she was exhausted after the helicopter ride this afternoon.  But she was delivered to us so quickly that way.  So many wonderful advancements have been made in the past three centuries, would you say dear?”

My jaw is clench in fury, but I manage to get out the words, “That is not her home.  Let her go.”

Ignoring my demand, she continues, “She’s such a delight.  Such a wonderful addition to our family.  Although her language is a little crude.”

“I’m coming there now,” I warn her. 

“Oh yes dear, you must come.  We’re having a bit of a get-together.  Some of our closest friends.  We’d appreciate it, though, if you would not bring those undesirable humans with you.”

I freeze in the middle of undressing, “What humans?”

She laughs as if I just told a delightful joke, “Why the vampire hunters of course.  They really aren’t the sort of friends that our lovely Catalina should be associating with.  We would have eradicated them from the city long ago if it wouldn’t have just brought in more of them.  Instead, we allow them to have their sport with the weaker of our kind.”

“When I get there, you better not have harmed her,” I threaten, feeling helpless and frustrated. 

“Jaden dear, we only have the best intentions when it comes to our new daughter-in-law,” she says smoothly. 

Not wanting to waste any more time, I hang up.  Getting dressed, I choose clothing that is durable.  Jeans, boots, long sleeve shirt and leather jacket.  When it comes to Catalina’s life, I’ll take no chances.  Raiding her weapons, I strap on a gun holster underneath my jacket, strapping in a Browning 9mm.  I also tuck a Buck Mark pistol into the back of my pants, under the jacket. 

Even though I can rip a human or vampire apart with my hands, from a distance, knives come in handy.  I slip one sheathed blade in each boot and place wristbands on each wrist with slots for throwing knives. 

On my way down to my car, I contemplate calling in Catalina’s friends.  A part of me is willing to risk them, sacrifice them, in order to save Catalina.  Despite the part of me that’s willing to sacrifice them, the conscience that my parents so despair of stops me. 

The hunters are expecting me to show up tonight, in a few hours, at their house.  We were to go over last minute plans and be staked outside of my parents home a half hour before dawn.  I’ll have to at least call them and let them know the change of plans. 

That I’ll be going alone.  That Catalina has been taken.  My phone beeps to let me know that I just received a new text.  It’s from Mason, “I’m heading back.”

I text him back, “You won’t be here on time.”

He texts again, “F*ck that!”

I send him one last text, “I’ll keep you informed.”

Then I dial the number to Catalina’s friends’ house.  Since a female answers, I can guess who it is, “Zoey?”

“Yes?”

“This is Jaden.  If you could inform the others that I’ll be going in alone, tonight.”

“Why?” Her voice is filled with horror-filled disbelief. 

I swallow through the bad taste in my mouth, “They have her.”

I can hear a male voice in the background ask, “What is it?  What’s wrong?”

Zoey starts crying on the other line, “His bastard parents have Catalina.”

The phone changes hands and a male voice comes on the line, “How the hell could you let this happen?”

Not hard to guess who this is, “Noah?”

“Yes, now tell me what the hell has happened.  I thought you said she was somewhere safe?”

“She was supposed to be,” I say emotionlessly.  “I sent her out of town with her brother.”

“Brother!  Idiot, her brother’s dead!”

I laugh humorlessly, “Her brother is not dead.  Well, not totally.  Her brother is a vampire.”

“How can that be possible?”  His hostile tone is gone, replaced by confusion.

“Look, it is what it is.  Mason is a vampire and I made a mistake.  He wasn’t able to protect her.  I’m on my way to my parents’ estate and I’m going to get her back.”

“We’ll meet you there,” he suggests eagerly.

As tempting as an offer that is, I can’t do it.  The hunters would provide a much-needed distraction.  They may even manage to kill a few of the vampires and humans working for my parents, but with the numbers my parents will have on their side during nighttime hours, some if not all of the hunters would end up dead.  Our original plan of ‘infiltrating’ during the day would have had the odds on our side.  We would have only had the human bodyguards to deal with. 

Right now, the only thing that I have on my side is that it’s highly unlikely that my parents will kill me or have me killed by other vampires.  Catalina is another story. 

“Don’t come,” I tell him, “They know about you guys and you won’t stand a chance against the amount of manpower that you’d be up against.”

“This is bullshit,” he says vehemently. 

I tell him the same thing that I told Mason, “I’ll keep you informed,” then I hang up. 

On the drive to my parents’ estate, I go over the different scenarios that they could possibly have in mind for tonight.  It’s obvious that they are using Catalina to bring me to heel.  They’ve pounced on my only weakness.  Any other human I know, I would have been upset, but with her I’m desperate.  I love her.

When I arrive, the gates are open and in the driveway are parked enough cars for a party to be going on inside.  As soon as I step out of my car, a human servant is waiting on me. 

His eyes are over-bright and there are fresh bite marks on his neck, “Sir, may I show you the way?”

I reach out and snap his neck, “No thanks, I’ll find it myself.”  He falls to the pavement and I step over his body to get to the front door. 

I also kill the human butler who opens the front door before I even have to knock.  The two female vampires necking on a settee in the front entryway look up and smile at the dead human on the marble floor.  One of them beckons me to join them.  I pull the pistol out from the waistband of my jeans and put a bullet into each of their hearts.  They slump ungracefully into each other before going up in fire and ash. 

“Really Jaden, is it necessary to kill the help?” A drawling voice asks from above me.  I look up to see my mother and father, arm in arm, gliding down the staircase.  When they reach the bottom, my mother gestures to the hallway going right, “Please, join us in the drawing room.”

Seeing my parents is always a shock.  I grew up without them, never knowing them until they came for me after I was fully grown.  Since they both look just a couple years old than me, I resemble them more than other children resemble their parents.  I have my father’s dark red hair, my mothers facial features and my father’s build.

In some ways, my parents have adjusted to modern times, by losing their old world Irish accents, like I did, and in some ways, they will never change.  They hold on to some of the old world vocabulary and manner of speaking.

“Where is she?”

“All in good time, son.  We have something to show you first,” my father says good-naturedly. 

Wanting to get the bullshit part over with, I follow them, choosing to stand when they gesture for me to sit.  At any moment, I’m expecting a tea cart to be brought in.  Maybe with modern times, it’ll be a cappuccino machine.  Not that we need the sustenance, unless the drinks are red. 

“I’ll make it simple,” I start out, crossing my arms over my chest and taking on a hostile posture, “Give her back or I’ll kill everyone in this house.”

Ignoring my demands, my father relaxes back into the couch, my mother is sitting primly next to him, legs crossed at the ankles.  “Son, we’re doing this for your own good.”

“And what, exactly, is for my own good?  Kidnapping my girlfriend?” I ask belligerently. 

“Jaden,” my mother begins and the coldness of her tone alerts me, “Do you see that camera?”  She points to a security camera mounting at the doorway of the room, pointed directly at us.

“Yes,” I say cautiously. 

She smoothes out a wrinkle in her blue silk dress, “The moment you no longer show up on the screen being monitored by security, she dies.”

“So what am I supposed to do?  Live in this room for the rest of my immortal life?” Sarcasm may not help, but it alleviates some of the tension. 

“Of course not, that would be ridiculous,” my father laughs.  “Just until the party is over.”

“Party?” I ask warily.

“The one about to begin in the small ballroom we have at the back of the house,” my mother clasps her hands together in a gesture of excitement.  “It’s really a shame we can’t join them, but with your lovely human as the guest of honor, I felt it better that we watch from here.”

At that moment, a cart is rolled into the room, but it’s not the kind that dispenses refreshments.  On it is a large flat screen television with various small antennas and wires.  As the vampire who brought it in turns it on, a panoramic view of the ballroom is seen. 

The room is packed with vampires, but that isn’t what fills me with dread.  It’s Catalina, standing in the middle of them while they circle her.  I make a move towards the doorway, but my father stops me, “Leave this room and she’ll die before you can reach her.”

I turn my head to glare at him, “Then maybe I’ll just kill you.”

“She’ll die, then, also,” my mother says with an aggrieved expression on her face.  “That would be such a shame, don’t you think?”

I point at the screen, “What is this all about?”

My mother looks down at her hands, “As your parents, we’ve always wanted what was best for you.  As a mother, it pains me to see you suffer.” 

Yeah, right.

Her hand flutters to her throat, “Childrearing is such a learn-as-you-go- experience.  Sometimes you get it right, like when we changed you, and sometimes you make mistakes.  Instead of dwelling on those mistakes, you learn from them and endeavor to do better in the future.”

“I’m not a child and I wasn’t one anymore when you turned me,” I remind her.

“Yes, yes.” she says quickly, “But you will always be my baby.”  She gets a tender look on her face that only disgusts me.

“You abandoned me when I was just a toddler to become a monster,” I say distractedly, with my attention more on the screen than it is on her.  The vampires are still behaving, but Catalina’s back is to the camera now, so I can’t see her face any longer. 

Ignoring my insult regarding her mothering skills, she continues, “We thought it would be best to be gentle with you when we turned you from a weak human and into the beautiful, strong boy you are now.  We were so careful with you, limiting the amount of pain you felt.  Soothing you during your transition.”

“I am oh-so-grateful,” I say bitterly. 

“You misunderstand, son,” my father cuts in.  “We consider that as being where we went wrong with you.  We believe that’s why you are so soft towards the humans.  The gentleness that your dear mother insisted on while turning you is what caused you to be different in your nature, compared to other vampires.”

“What are you trying to say?”  Afraid of where this is heading. 

My mother beams out of nowhere.  Her sudden demeanor change throws me off.  “Catalina is going to be magnificent!” She exclaims.

My eyes dart back to the screen in horror as their purpose starts to dawn on me. 

“It’s about to begin,” my father says eagerly. 

CATALINA’S  POV:

A grenade or two would come in handy right about now.  A machine gun and a roomful of vampires is every hunter's wet dream.  Unfortunately, I’m not equipped with weapons or even dressed for anything of the kind.  I glance down at my bare feet and the ridiculous red prom-style dress that I was forced to put on. 

Seriously, what the hell do they want?  This group of fifteen or so vampires just keeps leering at me, circling me and acting as if they are waiting for me to dance a jig for them. 

A female vampire with cropped blonde hair steps in front of me and licks her lips, “I can’t wait to play with you.”

A male, with more metal than skin on his face, places a hand on her chest, “I get first bite.  Remember we can’t kill her right away.”

I hear a vampire from somewhere in the back of the crowd say, “Yes, if she doesn’t make it, the master and his wife will have our hearts.”

“I’m standing right here, dumbasses!”  I call out loud enough for all of them to hear me. 

The crowd around me parts as a man in a white lab coat stops within inches of me.  Before I can stop him, he pokes me in the arm with a needle and injects something into me.  From the speed of his movements, I can tell that he is a vampire.  He says matter-of-factly, “That was a shot of adrenaline.  Should keep you alert longer for the games.”

“What games?” I ask, but he is already walking away.  The blond vampire from before slaps me across the face, hard enough for my head to whip to the side.  Before I can recover, another slap comes at me, hitting me in the jaw.  I manage to dodge the next one, but then someone grabs me from behind. 

A vampire I didn’t notice before grabs my face, forcing me to make eye contact.  I sneer at him, “My boyfriend is going to kill you all.”

He smiles maliciously, “Your boyfriend is in a room, in this house, watching this on a monitor with his parents.”

Relief washes through me.  Jaden’s here!  He’ll kill all these assholes.  I let myself finally feel the fear that I was suppressing.  It’s okay now, I don’t have to be brave anymore.  Jaden will be strong for me.  When the same guy punches me in the stomach, I have to catch my breath before screaming out Jaden’s name. 

I continue to scream for Jaden, but he doesn’t come.  When they start biting me, instead of feeling weak, my heart is racing from the adrenaline shot.  I can take the slaps, punches and bites, but when one of them pulls out a blade and starts cutting me shallowly on the arms, I stop screaming for Jaden and start screaming in pain . . . . . .

JADEN’S  POV:

“Enough!” I yell in agony, the sound loud in such a small room.  What I’m seeing happening on the other side of the house is tearing me apart, but I can’t tear my eyes away from the screen.  I memorize the face of every vampire in that room.  I’m going to rip them all apart. 

My clenched fists are pulling on my hair as they grip it, but I don’t feel the pain of it.  But, I swear, I feel Catalina’s pain.  The worst of it when she screams for me.  Never have I cursed my acute vampire hearing.  At the same time, though, hearing her call out my name lets me know that she’s still alive. 

Looking at the screen, I see a vampire push aside the one who was cutting her and throw her over the crowd.  Her body hits the wall and she falls like a rag doll to the floor.  Another vampire grabs her by the hair and starts dragging her back to the center of the room.  I pray silently that the shot of adrenaline she was given will be overridden by the sheer pain of what is being done to her.  Oblivion is my greatest wish for her. 

A male vampire kneels in front of her and rips up the front of her skirt.  Her arms flail out at him, but a female vampire grabs them to hold her down.  My eyes leave the screen for the first time in many minutes and I glare with all the hatred that I’m feeling at my parents.  “Have you ordered them to rape her?”

They have the nerve to look offended.  My mother’s mouth drops open in shock, but it’s my father who answers, “What kind of monsters do you think we are?”

I can hear Catalina scream my name again and my eyes dart back to the screen.  The vampire has sunk his fangs into the inside of her thigh.  After drinking from her, he lifts his face to the camera and smiles.  He won’t be smiling when I rip off his head. 

The female vampire who was holding her arms laughs and pushes Catalina into a sitting position.  Letting go of one of her arms, she grips the other in both hands and pulls it behind Catalina’s back.  I don’t hear the snap as Catalina’s arm is broken, but I can see the pain and tears on Catalina’s face. 

And I hear the scream. 

She's so close, just on the other side of the house, and I can't do anything to help her.

The bitch lets go of Catalina and she collapses onto her back, cradling her broken arm, shock on her face.  Another vampire straddles Catalina’s stomach and wraps his big hands around her throat.  With her unbroken arm, she reaches up to claw at his hands as he begins to choke her.  Her eyes are wide and her face is turning red. 

“Please stop this,” I beg in a hoarse whisper. 

“It’s for your own good, son.  She’ll be a strong vampire and a good mate for you.”’

“She’ll be the first of her kind,” my mothers says delightfully. 

My head whips in her direction, “What are you talking about?”

I’m distracted when I hear a cheer come from across the house and I look back at the screen. The vampire is climbing off her.  She looks dead. 

“Merely passed out,” my mother says calmly with a wave of her hand.  “She lasted longer than I’d thought.  Even with the adrenaline.  Yes, an excellent mate.”

I exhale slowly, “So it’s over?”

My father laughs, “Jaden, it’s only begun.”

When I look back at the screen, the vampires have seemed to lost interest in Catalina, for the moment.  Several of them are now engaging in sexual acts.  Despite my disgust, I force myself to keep my eyes on the screen, looking for any sign of life from Catalina.  Her clothes are torn and bloody.  Her face is swollen, but I’m grateful for the momentary reprieve. 

I look up at the security camera pointed at me, giving a death look to whoever is monitoring me from security room.  I have to think of something to get her away from here, but no plan comes to mind.  I know my parents are set in their decision to violently turn Catalina into a vampire.  Will they achieve their desired effect?  Will the violence and horror of her transition turn Catalina into the worst of our kind?

No, I can’t believe that.  I think the kind of vampire a person is, depends on the kind of human that they previously were.  Catalina is good.  I have to believe that, if my parents succeed, if I can’t save her from this nightmare, that she will continue to be good.  I think of Mason and his violent turning.  Although he acts the part of the young, bitter punk, he seems to be good for the most part. 

I have to save Catalina.  She doesn’t want this.  She doesn’t want to be a vampire and she sure as hell doesn’t want to be tortured by a group of sadistic bloodsuckers. 

I see movement on the screen and two human males are pulling a metal tub filled with water into the ballroom. 

CATALINA’S POV:

The first thing that I’m aware of is that I can’t breathe.  The second is that I’m cold.  My eyes pop open and I realize that I’m underwater.  No, not all of me.  Just my head.  I try to lift my head out of the water, but something is pushing down on my head.  I can feel a rough grip in my hair. 

My face is yanked out of the water and I gasp frantically for air.  My throat hurts along with the rest of my body.  With one arm limp at my side, I swing the other arm and hit flesh.  Instead of hurting the vampire kneeling next to me, he only laughs tauntingly. 

“I’ll kill you,” I rasp out.  My voice is just a whisper and I remember the vampire choking me earlier. 

I can no longer tell if my racing heart is caused by the adrenaline shot or my body producing its own natural version of the chemical.  I yank myself away from the vampire and use my working arm to grip the metal tub in front of me, trying to pull myself to my feet.  I know that I don’t stand a chance of making a run for it, but I’m not about to just sit here waiting for the next blow. 

My broken arm causes me to struggle to my feet, but I breathe through the pain.  I’ve never broken a bone before and feel dizzy from the pain.  As soon as I’m to my feet, I glare at the nearest vampires.  The one guy said that Jaden was here, but I can’t believe that.  If he was in this house, he would have heard me screaming for him.  He would have come. 

Despite trying to be brave, I start to cry.  Some of the vampires laugh, some look bored.  I guess if you’ve seen enough human suffering, it just becomes sort of commonplace after awhile.  A vampire with an angelic face comes up to me, wrapping his arms around my waist and croons in my ear, “Sh, pretty girl.  I’m going to make it all better.”

When his fangs pierce my neck, it causes me nothing but more pain.  Especially in the way that he yanks through my skin with his teeth.  My head falls back as I become even more dizzy from the blood loss.  I would have fallen to the floor if not for his grip around my waist. 

I feel something stab into my back from behind and it takes me a moment to comprehend that I was just stabbed in my lower back.  My mouth goes open in a scream, but it's weak because my throat hurts so much.  Through the tears in my eyes, I see something hovering above my face.  The same vampire is still drinking from me when something wet hits my face.  It starts falling into my mouth and I taste blood.  But this time it’s not my own. 

I snap my mouth closed as I realize that a vampire is feeding me his blood.  For the first time, I realize that they might mean to turn me.  I spit out any blood still in my mouth.  “You taste like bat shit,” I mumble. 

The vampire that was holding me lets me go and I go crashing to the floor.  I scream out at the pain this causes to my arm.  Whatever was stabbed into my back jabs deeper.  Rolling to my side, I pant and hope that I pass out again. 

A face leans down so that I can see him.  It’s that jerk that sliced me up with his blade.  He holds the knife in front of me again.  “I’m going to cut you some more.”

“No thanks,” I rasp out.

He just smiles and his face disappears from my view.  When he starts slicing at the tops of my breasts and stomach, I try to hold in the screams, struggling to back away.  Not wanting to give him the pleasure of hearing my suffering, I force my mouth to stay closed.  As he cuts me, I try to concentrate on other thoughts.  Like what I’m going to do to him once I get the chance.

He laughs and wipes my blood off his blade, using my cheek. I can feel the knife cut into the skin on my face.  A female vampire uses her booted foot to roll me from my side and onto my back.  Looking up at her, I hold up my middle finger and attempt to smile.  My face hurts. 

She holds out her hand and the cut-happy vampire passes his knife to her.  Kneeling down on the side of me, she holds the knife to my throat.  “A few of us are going to feed you some blood.  Unless you want every one of these men to rape you, you’ll cooperate.”

Not one to let a bitch talk shit to me, I ask her, “Were you that ugly when you were human?”

The point of the knife pricks me in the throat and I feel a trickle of blood pool at the hollow of my throat.  With her free hand, she forces her fingers into my mouth and I’m tempted to bite her.  However, I don’t want my throat slit. 

Two vampires, a male and female, kneel on the other side of me.  One of them brushes against my broken arm and I stifle a tortured moan.  They kiss each other, then bite into each other’s wrists.  How touching, I think sarcastically.  Taking turns, each of them hold their wrists over my mouth while the vampire holding my mouth open orders me to swallow periodically. 

After a few minutes of this, two more vampires take their places, forcing me to drink from them.  I don’t struggle much.  After all, it’s either drink their nasty blood or get gang-banged.  All at once, all three vampires let go and pull away, leaving me lying alone on the floor, feeling bloated off all the blood. 

“Drain her some more,” I hear someone say.

Let’s not. 

“Wait!” someone calls out.  “The doc has to give her the rest of the shots.”

I can see in my peripheral, the white lab coat coming closer.  The doctor kneels down, holding a needle in each hand.  “More adrenaline?” I manage to get out. 

He smiles benignly, as if he’s helping me, “These are something different.  They are going to make you a very special young lady.”

Consecutively, he jabs me with both needles, emptying the liquid contents into my system.  As he’s walking away from me, I picture myself giving him a few shots of my own.  With my crossbow. 

“Okay, let’s drain her,” someone eagerly suggests.  I feel so tired that my eyes start to close. 

“No, let’s drain her out through cuts,” I can only guess which sick-o came up with that idea.  I force my eyes open.

“Yes, she doesn’t deserve to be drained the old-fashioned way.  Let’s cut the little human,”

And I used to be so fond of knives. 

JADEN’S  POV:

“Stop this.  You can still stop this,” I glare at my parents.  All of them are dead, especially the two sitting across from me.  I can’t stand what is happening to Catalina.  A part of me has been tempted to shut off my emotions, not face what is happening, run from it.  But, I love her more than I want to protect myself.  It’s my fault this is happening to her. 

“It’s almost finished,” my mother tells me in a patient voice. 

“I’m going to kill both of you,” I say through clenched teeth. 

“We’re going to be a family now,” my mother says with a wistful look on her face. 

My father looks thoughtfully at the television screen, “You know, I would have thought that they’d finish it the old-fashioned way.  Consume the remaining blood that the human has.  Letting the vampire blood in her stomach spread throughout her drained body and bring her back to life.”

I look at the screen in horror to where the vampires now have Catalina tied to a chair.  She looks like she is barely conscious, trying with all her might just to hold her head up.  The closest vampire starts stabbing her in various places on her body.  All places that don’t kill . . . right away.  Passing his knife to a female vampire, she starts stabbing Catalina in the legs and arms.

Catalina’s mouth is open in a silent scream.  I know it’s silent because I can’t hear it. 

I wipe my hand over my mouth, feeling agony as they continue stabbing her.  Finally, thankfully, Catalina passes out and her chin drops onto her chest.  “Can I go to her now?” I manage to choke out between sobs. 

“Wait for her to bleed to death,” my father orders. 

“What was in those last two needles?” I ask, my voice is muffled from my hands over my face. 

“Like we said,” my mother begins, “She’ll be the first of her kind, special.”

Not wanting to know.  Not being able to deal with it at this time, I don’t ask.  “Get the hell away from me.”

They ignore me.

“I’m taking her now,” I calmly say. 

“We should be together as a family when she wakes up tomorrow night,” my father says sternly.

I lift my head.  “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!”

My parents both look shocked and, acting affronted, both stand up, as if to leave.  With her nose in the air, my mother says, “We’re throwing a coming out dinner, of a sort, for her tomorrow night.  We’ll expect you to both be there.”

“Go to hell,” I mutter as they leave the room.  Dragging myself to my feet, I walk to the back of the house, feeling as if I’m struggling against a tide. 

Smug and smirking vampire faces are still in the ballroom to greet me.  Some of them once again engaging in various sexual acts.  Some of the human servants have been brought in to drink from.  I scan their faces, “I’ve memorized all of your faces.”

“Sooo scared,” someone says dramatically. 

I look at a young vampire and hand him one of the blades from my wristband, “Kill yourself.”

Taking the blade, he drives it into his heart.  Some of the vampires gasp.  Some run from the room.  A few brave ones, ones that I sense have hit or are near the century mark, stay to challenge me.  In a few quick movements, I rip out of the heart of the first one, another one flees the room and the third is the one who provided the knives for the others.  Him, I pull a knife out of my boot for.  I spend a few minutes incapacitating him and slicing him up before ripping off his head and slamming the knife into his heart. 

Turning my attention to Catalina, I walk over to where she is still tied to the chair.  She isn’t completely dead yet.  Her heartbeat is slow and her breathing is shallow.  In a sick joke, someone has placed a black body bag at her feet.  I kick it aside. 

Carefully untying her from the chair, I sit on the floor, pulling her into my arms.  I wipe at the tears in my eyes, then use my shirt to wipe at her face.  Cradling her in my lap, I begin to rock her, providing a comfort that she is not even aware of.  “Oh angel.  I’m so sorry.”

Kissing her on her swollen lips, I murmur, “You won’t be bad.  I promise I won’t let you be bad.”

Irrationally, I bite into my wrist and hold it over her parted mouth.  Hoping that my blood will wash away some of what was done to her.  Out of my mind with grief, I whisper “Swallow” to her over and over again.  I can’t stand the thought of those bastards’ blood being the last thing she tastes.  My blood runs back out of her mouth and down her chin.

As she takes her last breath as a human and her heart stops beating, I stand up and carefully carry her broken body away from here.

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First off,     VOTE!

Second,    COMMENT! 

I have to know what you guys think after reading this chapter.  Everything has been leading up to this point, where it goes from here, well you'll just have to wait and see . . . . .  .