Blood on the Sun-chapter 2
Song of the Sangamar book 2
The cell door creaked open, and the men carrying Liliana’s unconscious body braced for impact. The taller of the two guards shouldered all of her weight and the second one held a cattle prod at the ready, electricity arcing from the nodes on its end as he pressed the button.
He was tackled from his feet as a red and blue blur crashed into him, inhuman snarls rumbling from the creature that tried to escape her cell. She rode him to the ground, claws out and fangs bared. She raked her claws through any of his flesh she could reach, and unfortunately did more damage to his Kevlar vest than to his body.
Swearing loudly, he finally grabbed the baton and drove it into her side relentlessly. Like a woman possessed, it took more than a few zaps for her to relinquish her hold on him. The smell of scorched flesh scented the air like freshly grilled meat. He flung the other woman back into the small room, his fellow guard tossing Lily onto the bed that sat in the corner.
The two men made a hasty retreat from the cell, slamming it shut and locking it only seconds before the other woman charged again, her body crashing into the bars with a feral roar. She gripped the bars in her hands, rattling them as hard as she was able, but it did nothing aside from making noise. Freedom was denied her yet again, but the scent of blood in the air spurred her on.
A slender arm extended through the space between the bars, a claw-tipped finger pointing menacingly at the men. “Just you motherfuckers wait until I get outta here! I’m gonna eat your goddamned livers while you watch!”
Panting and sweating from the exchange, the one she’d scratched chuckled. “Sit down, you daft bitch. You’re never getting out of here alive, and you know it.”
The woman’s eyes glowed amber in the dim light of the underground containment area. “We’ll fucking see about that, needle dick.”
The man in question took a few steps closer to the cell. “Want me to prove to you how wrong you are about that one?” His hand went to his belt buckle and the second guard gripped his shoulder in warning.
“Don’t even think it. Remember what happened to the last guy who thought he could get grabby with the prisoners?”
Needle Dick huffed, not looking pleased. “Yeah. Luis castrated him and beat him to death with his own leg.” He tilted his head side to side, neck joints popping loudly. He made pointed eye contact with the yellow-eyed and befanged woman. “Shame… If I would have known this was a hands-off gig, I wouldn’t have signed on for it.”
The woman folded her arms and leaned on the horizontal bar that was around chest height. “And that’s how I know you’re lackin’. No real man needs to force himself on a woman, you disgustin’ fucking pig.” Her words came out more snarl than speech.
He swung the baton towards her, activating the charge quickly enough that it made her jump back away from the bars while the tip of the cattle prod clanged uselessly off the metal bars.
The petite woman snorted, folding her arms across her stomach and giving him a glare of disapproval. “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. Get fuckin’ lost, Needle Dick.”
“Drop it,” the more level-headed guard said with a tired sigh. He grabbed Needle Dick by the back of his shirt and the two of them headed down the hallway that was only lit by buzzing fluorescent track lights at intermittent intervals.
Her skin crawled at the thought of any man putting his hands on her, much less that one. He’d get his, when the time was right. She shuddered and turned to her cellmate with a little huff. “I’m getting’ real tired of takin’ care of your ass, Lily.”
She knelt beside Liliana on the mattress, taking in the damage to the other woman. Thankfully the bedding was clean, no matter what. The self-proclaimed vampire king Luis took care of them, aside from kicking their asses. He wanted Lily to do something for him, but she didn’t know what. Neither of them did.
She’d been imprisoned about a week before Lily arrived. And as much as she trusted Fear’s judgment about most things, the werewolf didn’t know what to make of the other sangamar. Allegedly, she had some nifty demon powers, but she hadn’t seen her use them. Maybe they were too new to her, or just something with no combat abilities.
Either way, playing nursemaid wasn’t her idea of a good time. But knowing how Fear felt about Lily, she couldn’t just leave her to suffer. She felt responsible for the other sangamar and hated that she couldn’t just worry about saving her own hide.
Lily stirred, a heavy groan rolling from her lips as she curled up into a ball, covering her head with her hands. She felt a warm hand settle on her shoulder and didn’t even have the energy to try to move away from it.
“Shh,” the werewolf hushed her, stroking a calming hand across her upper back. “You’re not with him, now. You’re here with me. You’re as safe as you’re gonna get, Lily.”
Liliana rolled an eye to look up at the other woman in the enclosure with her. “Who are you?”
The other woman, a petite slip of a girl with short and bouncy ginger curls, sighed heavily. “Whatever that idiot leech is tryin’ to get outta you, he ain’t gonna get shit if he doesn’t quit knockin’ you around so hard. Human brains can only take so many bonks before things stop comin’ back.”
Lily slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, the constant throb and pulse of pain in her head making it hard for her to focus on anything. If she closed her eyes, it dulled a bit. She opened her mouth, ready to ask again.
“I’m Dakota. I’ve told you that a couple of times already. You just don’t remember because he breaks you until your brain does a hard reset. Every fuckin’ time. I know it’s not your fault, but shit’s gettin’ old.”
“Sorry,” Lily muttered, starting to shiver at the cool damp of the cell, compared to the desert heat of the torture room she’d been in before.
“Don’t worry about it none, Lily. At least he didn’t hurt you so bad, this time. Physically.”
Liliana wrapped her arms around herself, trying to regulate her temperature as her teeth chattered. The heat above ground would have evaporated the water from her clothing and hair, but down here, she felt soggy and cold. “H-how long have I been h-here?” she stammered.
Dakota slid closer, wrapping an arm protectively around her. A soft, involuntary moan dropped from Lily’s mouth at the gentle contact. Dakota’s body was warmer than should have been possible in the cold stone cell.
“A little more than a week, if my count of the days is right. I’ve been here a week or so longer than that, even.”
Lily sniffled, dragging her forearm across her face and unsurprised when a smear of blood showed on her skin. “But you don’t look hurt. How could you be here for almost a month and not be in pieces?”
Dakota gave Lily a spunky grin full of fangs that were different from the vampire teeth she’d grown accustomed to. Her hazel eyes brightened, giving off a dim amber light of their own. “Being a werewolf has some perks. Got some downsides, too, but we don’t need to worry about those, right now.”
“How strong is a werewolf, compared to a vampire?” Lily asked point-blank.
Dakota shrugged, rubbing her hand up and down Lily’s upper arm to generate some more heat through friction. “Depends on the size of the fight in the dog, and the leech we’re facin’ off with. I couldn’t take on King Luis in a fair fight and beat him, alone. But Needle Dick and Tweedle Dee? Human men are no match for a werewolf, without an equalizer like that stupid fucking zap stick. Even a tiny thing like me could take them out.”
They shared a giggle at Dakota’s nicknames for the guards, their easy laughter trailing off into a somber silence that weighed on them heavily.
“King Luis?” Liliana asked after a few moments. “That the tall, lanky jerk who was kicking my ass?”
Dakota nodded, her hazel eyes distant as she stared off into the darkness of their prison. “That stupid vampire thinks he’s one step away from being a god. Has some link to the Aztecs or something. I never can get him to talk about himself for long. He’s always hung up on you.”
Lily looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap, fingers interlaced. “Luis… The name sounds familiar, but I have no idea what he wants with me. If all he wanted from me was blood, then why hasn’t he just bitten me already?”
Dakota held up her arm in what little light they had, and Liliana gasped at the many small scars that ran up and down the inner bend of her elbow. “He doesn’t need to get up close and personal like that when they can just hook us up to needles, siphon off a bag, and store it for whenever His Majesty gets a bit peckish.”
The sangamar stared at the multitude of wounds for a few moments. “But if you’re a werewolf and heal faster than normal, how...?”
“Needles coated with silver, so it doesn’t just close up.” Dakota rubbed the pad of her thumb over the shiny little scars. “Fear’s gonna be so pissed when they see these. Woe be to anyone that gets in their way once the cavalry figures out where we’re all bein’ stored.”
“Fear?” Lily asked, perking up a bit at the familiar name.
Dakota gave her a small, wry smirk. “The Brewster clan might have bigger numbers than the Winterbournes do, but folks still have their favorites. To say that I’m Fear’s favorite would be an understatement. We’ve been seriously dating for over a decade, now.”
Lily’s cheeks flamed at the thought of her last encounter with the pyrokinetic vampire in question. Dakota’s chuckle turned into a full-on guffaw at Liliana’s embarrassment, and she clapped the other girl on the shoulder. “No worries, sugar. We’re serious, but we also don’t mind sharin’. Besides, I’m not the jealous type. Whatever makes Fear happy makes me happy. And I can tell ya that bein’ here isn’t doin’ good things for them or me.”
“Oh… I’m glad, then. Thankful you’re here, and that I’m not totally alone.”
“This is the most lucid you’ve been since the first time he took you up there. He must be realizin’ that slappin’ you around with those meat hammers he calls hands ain’t workin’ like he hoped.”
“Still managed to rattle my brains around. Can’t believe one slap from a vampire hits that damned hard.” Lily turned her face aside, coughing into her shoulder. “What is this place, anyway?”
“Some vampire-run prison compound. Luis has been collectin’ sangamars and juicing hardcore from all of us. No biting, but he’s definitely got something planned with all the blood he’s been stealing from us.”
“A blood farm, essentially.” Dakota nodded. “You keep saying ‘all of us’… How many sangamars are there here?”
“Twenty folks I’ve seen that I can put a name and face to. There could be more. But in this sector, there’re twenty of us.”
Lily whistled softly. “Holy shit.”
She leaned into the smaller woman’s embrace, her shivering finally starting to subside. “And most of them aren’t human, I take it. Not fully, at least.”
Dakota nodded, resting her cheek against the top of Lily’s head. “Not a single fully human sangamar in the bunch. Whatever weird power play he’s got planned for the Cortes clan… It’s not gonna be good for anybody on the receiving end.”
“And we’re not even in the States anymore, are we?”
Dakota yawned, and Lily’s eyelids suddenly felt heavy. “Hell naw. We’re farther south than that. I’d guess somewhere in Mexico, but I have no idea where. I haven’t been able to get a good look outside, or get out of this damned cell, to try and get a read on things.”
Liliana covered her mouth with the back of a hand, failing to suppress a yawn. “I’ll never get over vampires being able to be in the sunlight.”
Dakota snickered a little. “Yeah… it’s a bit of an adjustment, when you’re not raised around the clan you’re intended for.”
“Damn. Should I be this sleepy?” Lily murmured, the warmth and comfort of being cuddled up to Dakota somehow taking all the stress out of her body.
“To be honest, even with succubus blood helping you heal, you’re probably a little concussed. Luis is a big boy. Got hands like fryin’ pans, and they hit about as hard as a cast iron one does.” She lightly stroked her hand over the side of Lily’s head. “But don’t worry about that shit, for now. If you’re tired, honey, sleep. There ain’t much else to do in this place.”
“Mhmm. Thank you, Dakota…” Lily mumbled, her breathing deepening as she drifted off.
Dakota held her, mind rolling over as many potential escape plans as she could fit in her head. She didn’t want to disturb the other sangamar, so rather than her usual time-killing activity, she hummed softly and ignored the tear that trailed its way down her freckled cheek.