“You’re a wretch.”
Lydia let out delighted squeal. “He fights! Oh, how he fights. It’s nice to be called something other than a whore for once.”
“Why would I insult whores like that?”
The succubus laughed. She lowered her breasts against Alex’s chin as she writhed on top of him. “Lorelei, you’ve taught him well,” Lydia taunted. Then she looked back down at Alex, who would have bitten her if he wasn’t sure it would just be another thing to mock him about. “Don’t try to goad me into ending your life quickly, Alex,” she said. “I won’t have it. You will leave this world with my name falling gratefully from your lips.”
She sounded so sure of it. He was chained here, and so was Lorelei. There was nothing either of them could do. Alex tried not to despair, but he knew she was right. He probably couldn’t hold out against this. Revolted as he was by Lydia and the situation, chances were that she’d probably just drive him out of his mind before long. Maybe with drugs, maybe with sleep deprivation. Though he resolved not to give in to Lydia, he just couldn’t see a way out.
Her tongue curled around his ear. Alex turned his face away, roughly trying to bump her head aside in some small show of contempt and resistance, but Lydia just smiled at that, too.
She smiled at everything.
“Where’s Rachel?” he finally asked in a hushed voice.
Lydia raised her head up again, looking down at him with an arched eyebrow. “Ah yes. Your foul-mouthed angel friend. She gave me quite the talking to,” Lydia chuckled. “Almost had me crying and cowering in a corner.”
Lydia looked here and there in the room, making a show of gazing over her shoulder. Then she laid back down against him. “Stefan told Warren that their lost ‘brother’ summoned an angel as well as Lorelei,” she whispered. “He thought I couldn’t hear, or maybe thought I couldn’t understand the language. Turns out I’ve gotten around over the centuries. Clearly, he hopes to try all this for himself. Silly mortal.
“Anyway, don’t worry about Rachel interrupting us, Alex,” Lydia smiled. “She’s already dead.”
* * *
“We ain’t fuckin’ torturin’ nobody,” Wade said firmly.
“Then how do we get this guy to talk?” Taylor asked, waving at the vampire still pinned under her car.
“You don’t,” Lucien grunted. He tried again to gain leverage. Again, Drew kicked the legs out from under him. Lucien growled in pain as the car once more settled down on his back. “You just die in agony. Your families die in agony. You all spend your last moments on this Earth begging for death!”
“Bitch, you gonna spend your last moments on this Earth with that mouth duct taped shut if you don’t shut the fuck up,” Drew warned him.
“Look, torture only works on television an’ in the wet dreams of chairborne rangers,” Wade scowled. “All you get is whatever sort’a confession’s gonna stop the pain. Maybe y’all get the guy to talk, but that don’t make what he says accurate.”
Lucien let out a bitter laugh. His eyes darted between the group. The only one who was not part of the conversation was Jason, who busily looked through the SUV. Off to the side, the gas station attendant sat on the curb bound with duct tape. Drew and Jason had less sympathy for the guy when they found out he hadn’t been calling 911.
“I don’t suppose your people in that mansion up the road would be open to a prisoner swap instead?” Taylor asked. “You for Alex and Lorelei?”
“They might,” Lucien ventured, “if you move quickly.”
“Well, there’s that, at least,” Taylor said, looking back to Wade. “Obviously they’d just try to kill all of us rather than doing a prisoner swap, so we’d be stupid to try. But that at least confirms they’ve got Alex and Lorelei.”
Lucien growled in frustration. The girl was clever. “The Lady will be good to her word! She is always good to her word! Approach under a flag of truce and it will be honored.”
Jason came back carefully holding a large sub-machinegun. It bore all sorts of accessories, from a flash suppressor to a folding stock. “They’ve got a couple other guns back there, too,” Jason noted as he offered the weapon to Wade, who took it with interest.
“Yeah, prisoner swaps ain’t happenin’,” Wade decided. “Your people are likely to jus’ figure they’re all way too tricksy for us simple mortal folk, so they’ll jus’ do somethin’ shady to screw us.” He pulled the magazine out of the weapon with some familiarity. He wasn’t an expert with this particular piece, but he at least knew the basics. The odd red rings around the tips of the bullets made his eyebrows rise. “What’s up with these bullets?” Wade asked.
Lucien only scowled.
“Oh, right, y’all ain’t gonna talk.” Wade reloaded the weapon, slung it over his shoulder and then went to his pick-up truck. He pulled the spare gas canister out of the back and walked in the direction of the gas pumps.
“Do you think this bit of theater frightens me?” Lucien snapped. “I tortured warriors twice your size back when this land bore only savages! I’ve seen all these games before! You don’t have it in you, and neither do your friends!”
“Yeah?” the young veteran asked. “So after all that experience, tell me this: How long y’ reckon it takes f’r a guy to learn that some folks just need killin’?”
Lucien’s aggressive demeanor lessened as Wade kept moving. For the first moment in all of this, the vampire seemed a touch unnerved.
“Man, we can’t just light him on fire,” Drew protested.
“You better start talking,” Jason told the vampire in what was half a warning and half a plea.
Taylor just watched, crossing her arms uncomfortably across her chest as Wade started filling the container.
“Wade,” Drew said, “you serious about this?”
“Folks, this dude is runnin’ around armed and dangerous, answerin’ to no law or authority we know. Ah bet y’all ain’t even an American citizen, am I right?” Wade asked, looking at Lucien pointedly as he brought the gas canister over. “Yeah, figured as much. So he’s answerin’ to some boss who ain’t no legal power, runnin’ around in mah country with illegal military weapons, kidnappin’ and assaultin’ mah fellow citizens…y’all get what ah’m sayin’ here? Ah’m good an’ pissed ‘bout Alex an’ Lorelei, but it ain’t just about mah friends now.”
“You’re saying he’s a terrorist?” Taylor blinked.
“Maybe not by definition, but it’s the same sort’a problem,” Wade nodded. “We’re lookin’ at a dude who makes war on our country without bein’ part o’ any nation. He ain’t gonna accept nothin’ short o’ total dominance, an’ he’ll obviously kill anyone who gets in his way. He ain’t gonna back down. An’ we can’t put him on trial.” Wade set the gas canister down on the ground next to him. He threw the safety on the sub-machinegun.
Lucien fumed. “You still won’t get into that mansion to save your friends if you kill me. No mortal can cross that threshold tonight.”
Wade cocked his head curiously. “Now, why’s that?”
“The home is mystically warded. As I say, no mortal can cross the threshold uninvited-or any of its other portals. Unless you’ve some way of walking through walls, you’d best reconsider a prisoner exchange.”
“How do we know that the people we want are still alive?” Taylor asked.
“They are both to be kept alive for…for the purposes of other bargains,” Lucien admitted.
“Not as party favors for you to munch on?” Drew pressed.
“No. Certainly not the demon. Your friend is being kept away from the festivities in part to prevent just such a waste. He is in the basement, safe from accidental harm.”
“Good to know,” Wade nodded. He put a three-round burst from the sub-machinegun into the vampire.
“What the fuck?!” Drew burst.
“Woah!” Jason protested. Taylor looked on in shock. Lucien quickly crumbled to ash. Soon only clothes and ashes remained under Taylor’s car.