Gidion's Hunt Read online

  For good measure, Gidion left the front door sitting open a few inches. He’d kept almost all of the lights, including the one on the front porch, turned off. No one would be able to see the front door was cracked open, unless they walked up to it.

  Stephanie was guaranteed to do that.

  The last thing she wanted was for the police to come here and find the door sitting open. For all of the handy rule pamphlets and Stephanie’s daily cleanings, which he assumed she did after school, the basement still had its share of suspicious bloodstains. The walls were lined with benches and shackles which he assumed would keep a tasty snack confined if a vampire wanted to save it for later.

  Cops searched insecure properties, and the one light he’d left on inside this house was the one in the basement. He’d also left the back door sitting wide open. The tall hedges in the backyard wouldn’t let neighbors see that door very easily, but the cops would do a three-sixty of the property and find it. He was willing to bet that Stephanie would, too, assuming she didn’t go right inside to turn off the music.

  Of course, the police weren’t going to come. The music had only just started blasting. Stephanie wouldn’t know that, though. For all she knew, the music could have been going on for hours and the cops were already on the way.

  He’d frustrated her for sure. She ran towards the house, but hesitated several times. She pulled out her cell phone, probably calling for vampire or feeder backup. Odds favored they wouldn’t get here that quickly. Stephanie would have to get things under control before that point lest irritated neighbors call the police.

  Gidion had borrowed the portable stereo from Grandpa’s house for this. The stereo was a Christmas gift from him and Dad. Good thing they didn’t go cheap.

  The stereo was sitting on the floor in the center of the room. Just as she walked up to it, Gidion attacked. Even through the blasting rap music, he heard her scream, not that anyone else would. She fell back to the floor, all without Gidion landing a single punch or a kick.

  Gidion stood from behind the chair where he’d been hiding. Stephanie’s body convulsed. He quickly shoved a rag into her mouth and covered it with duct tape. Then he turned off the music. She still screamed, but at least it was muffled. He closed and locked the front door. That was him being a jerk, because he was willing to bet the only person with the keys would be Stephanie.

  “You enjoying the Taser, Steph? Found that in the trunk of your vampire friends’ car.”

  Her body shook, and she grunted just before he rolled her onto her stomach. Unfortunately, stun guns and Tasers don’t automatically render a person unconscious like in the movies. Sometimes the blow to the head from the fall might do that, but he hadn’t gotten that lucky. For the moment, Stephanie was at least knocked pretty senseless.

  “The first shot’s the worst, I’m told. Those little jolts you’re feeling just keep you too incapacitated to rip out the nodes I shot at your back.” He slapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. “Look on the bright side; it’s a lot kinder than what my box cutter would do to you.”

  Another pair of handcuffs went around her ankles. Then he carried her to the Toyota he’d parked in the garage, threw her on the floorboard of the backseat and covered her with a tarp the vampires had kept in the trunk along with their handcuffs and the Taser.

  He wished the Taser would have kept shocking her, but that only lasted for about thirty seconds. She started to recover from the shocks about the time he was turning back onto Midlothian Turnpike.

  Stephanie kicked the back of his seat. She screamed through her gag. He glanced back to make sure she wasn’t getting up. Not likely with the way he had her cuffed up.

  “Just be patient, Stephanie. I won’t leave you back there for long.”

  And she sure as hell wasn’t going to like things any better once he got her out of the car.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Binding Stephanie to a tree turned out a lot trickier than he’d expected. Fortunately, he discovered he could use the Taser gun even without the little nodes shooting out the front of it. Knowing his luck, she’d gain superpowers from all of these repeated shocks and start zapping him with lightning bolts from her hands.

  After making her a bit more compliant, he bound her with a set of bungee cords he also kept in his blue backpack.

  She screamed as loud as she could, and did pretty well considering she was still gagged.

  “What’s that?” he asked with a taunting smile.

  She glared at him and screamed.

  “Oh, you’re calling for help? Allow me.” He stepped back and shouted as loudly as he could. “HELP!” He laughed at her and then turned his back to her as he dug through his backpack. He wasn’t getting anything else out of the bag. He just needed a moment to get his game face reset. The minute Roddy had let slip how important Elizabeth’s “little girls” were, he’d known he’d have to do this. Interrogating that vampire at the funeral home wasn’t nearly as daunting as tying up and threatening a girl, even one all gothed out like Stephanie.

  “These woods,” he said without looking back at her, “are a little ways off of I-64. You might enjoy the irony; it was Pete who found it. We came out here a few times with our toy lightsabers and beat the snot out of each other. Not a soul bothered us, and nobody’s going to hear you screaming either. Even if it wasn’t the middle of nowhere, the traffic on the interstate would drown out your screams. The car’s too far off the road for anyone to see it either.”

  He stood and walked back over to her and waved the cell phone he took from Milton in her face. “Now you stay nice and still. I want a good picture of you to send to your vampire mommy.”

  How he didn’t flinch when he snapped the shot of her, he wasn’t sure. Now that he was this close, he could see her eyes were blue. There was no missing them, bulging from their sockets in desperation.

  “That’ll work.”

  He petted her on the head like he would his dog Page. “Good girl.” He grinned at her. “Is that what she does after she bleeds you? Or does she give you a little tummy rub and throw a ball in the house for you to fetch? You’re just a pet, after all.”

  Desperation was replaced with the rage he’d grown accustomed to seeing from Steph. The guttural cry must have hurt her throat.

  “You know, my parents had a cat when I was born.” He typed his text to go along with the picture he’d just taken. “My mom loved that little furball, had owned it for years, but then it tried to suffocate me in my crib. Guess which one of us got sent to the pound after that?”

  He held up the cell phone for her to see her picture and read the text. “I’m willing to bet Elizabeth is going to have a similar reaction when she sees this.”

  The text read, ‘Elizabeth, call me. It’s time to negotiate.’

  “Of course, she might just decide you really are worth saving and trade you for Pete and Tamara.” He shrugged. “See, this is what I like to call a win-win scenario. Even if your owner doesn’t make the trade, I get the satisfaction of knowing you’re gonna die out here, and probably long before Tamara, too.”

  He pressed the send button on the phone and watched as the picture uploaded. A pretty little graphic with the words “Message Sent” appeared. He held it up for Stephanie to see it.

  “Let’s discuss options here, Stephanie, because I’m guessing Roddy isn’t going to want to show that to the ‘Queen Bee’ right away.” He walked back to the car and sat on the hood. “Now, I suspect you’re still too pissed to have really considered your situation. I’m assuming you got your vampire blood fix tonight, but I’m also guessing you made a donation. You don’t feel how weak you really are, because you’re still riding your high. You get daily doses of that crap? Yeah, I’ll bet you do, so you’re gonna feel the withdrawals by tomorrow night, if not sooner.”

  He narrowed his eyes, looking hard into her stare. “And I bet they’re gonna hurt real bad.”

  He drank some water from a bottle he also kept in his backpack.
“Now, since I’ll wager your vampire friends aren’t bothering with giving Pete or Tamara any food or water, I plan to give you the same treatment. Bet you’re plenty thirsty, too, after all that screaming.”

  Did she have any clue how difficult it was for him to meet her glare and keep a smile on his face? He doubted it. Unlike his interrogation with Milton, Stephanie wasn’t working with heightened senses. She couldn’t hear how fast his heart was working or see the shake of his hands. If her senses were telling her anything, it was probably how tight those bungee cords were, how uncomfortable the tree’s bark was against her back and how chilly the night air was.

  He glanced at the phone to give his poker face a small break. “Hmmm…still no reply. Not looking good for you. Right now, I’d guess Elizabeth is trying to decide if you’re worth the trouble of saving. After all, your little vendettas with Ms. Aldgate and Tamara are the whole reason her coven has been exposed.

  “Why’d she let you do it? Some kind of gift she offered you for being a good little blood whore?” He took a sip of his water and put the bottle away. This wasn’t all about payback for him, treating Stephanie like this. He needed her to realize how desperate her situation really was, because he didn’t expect Elizabeth to make the trade. If he was right, and there was no deal to be had, then he’d need to get what information he wanted out of Stephanie. She wasn’t going to talk if she thought for one minute she had any other way out.

  The phone in his hand vibrated. “Ah, look who’s calling.” He hopped off the hood of the car, walking to Stephanie and waggling the phone in her face. He hit the button for the speaker phone mode. “Hello, thank you for calling Feeders ‘R’ Us.”

  “Mister Keep, I’d be more impressed if you were holding a hand more impressive than mine.”

  He grinned at Stephanie and mouthed the words, ‘Told you so,’ before he responded to Elizabeth’s comment.

  “Well, I won’t lie,” Gidion said, “I think Tamara is a far better catch than your little goth princess.”

  “How fortunate you should feel that way, because I assume you’re calling to offer a trade, are you not?”

  He had her amused. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign.

  “Glad to see you’re not as dumb as your followers, Beth. If you want your little girl back, then I want Pete and Tamara returned unharmed.”

  “No, Mister Keep.” She laughed as if they were trading jokes over tea. “You misunderstand me. I realize you hope to trade Stephanie for your friends, but I am only interested in an even exchange. If you return Stephanie to me, I will free Peter: a feeder for a feeder.”

  “That’s a bullshit trade, and you know it.” Sure she’d free Pete first. He was just as likely to crawl back to them on his own for a hit of blood. He’d hoped for an outright refusal from Elizabeth. The token offer for a trade might work against his attempt to manipulate Stephanie, give her false hope.

  “Are you suggesting such a trade is unfair?”

  He laughed. “I’m suggesting you’re an idiot if you think I’ll settle for anything less than both Pete and Tamara’s safe return.”

  “It seems we have reached an impasse.”

  Gidion looked up at Stephanie and saw her glare. Worst of all, he saw his strategy wasn’t working at all. He had to turn this around somehow.

  “Let me ask you this, Elizabeth, if I were to offer an exchange of Stephanie for Tamara, what would you say?” He just hoped Pete wasn’t listening in the same way he had Stephanie unwillingly doing so. It wouldn’t be hard for Elizabeth to turn Pete against him with the same strategy.

  “How chivalrous, saving the damsel in favor of your friend.”

  Shit. She was doing exactly that.

  “Never said I was giving up on saving him, lady,” he snapped. “Now just answer the question. Will you make the trade?”

  The line went silent. He glanced down to verify the line was still open, which it was. She hadn’t expected this. Score one for him—maybe.

  “If you have any hope of ever seeing Stephanie in one piece again, I’d recommend agreeing to this.”

  “No, Mister Keep, I don’t—”

  He hung up before she could finish whatever she was about to say. Odds favored it would mitigate the damage of her refusal, and he didn’t want that.

  “Seems your ex-boyfriend isn’t the only one who prefers Tamara’s company to you.”

  He shut off the phone and slid it into his pocket. Better not to give Elizabeth a chance to call back while he played this hand with Stephanie.

  “Just to show I’m not completely heartless…” He ripped the duct tape from her mouth. She shrieked. Her skin was red and raw from where the tape had been. She spit out the rag and coughed.

  He flicked two fingers at her from his forehead in a parting salute. “At least you can maybe drink a few raindrops,” he said, “if it rains at all.” He turned and headed back to the car.

  “Where are you going!” The words sounded full of pain. “Gidion! She said she’d trade for me! She said she would!”

  Don’t let your face slip now, he told himself. This was where this either worked or failed. “That’s right, Stephanie. What did she say? ‘A feeder for a feeder’?” He laughed. “That’s exactly how much she values you.”

  “She loves me!” Regaining her voice filled her with a new determination to get free. She struggled against the bungee cords, but he had them too tight for her to move anywhere. The handcuffs to her wrists and ankles didn’t help.

  “Loves you? ‘A feeder for a feeder,’ Stephanie. How much does she really value you? I remember your opinion of Pete. You called him a decoration and a gargoyle.” He opened his car door, but didn’t climb in right away.

  “No! I’m her favorite! I’m—”

  “What you are to her is replaceable!” He stormed back towards her. “How much do you want to bet she’s already debating on how difficult it might be to convert Tamara into a feeder? She likes them pretty, and we both know how much more beautiful Tamara is than you. Your ex obviously agreed.”

  “You’re a fucking pig!”

  He got right in her face. Tears ran down her face, the memory of their paths marked by her dark eyeliner. “What I am is your wake-up call. Elizabeth is using you as a maid and a whore. If she loved you so much, there wouldn’t be any question about trading you for Pete and Tamara. All she cares about now is killing me. Leaving you here to die is a kindness compared to making that trade.”

  Stephanie pulled back. “A kindness? Leaving me here to die? You’re insane.”

  “Oh, really. What happened to the head feeder before Elizabeth gave you the honor?” He poured every ounce of sarcasm he could into that last word.

  She didn’t answer him. She didn’t need to. Her blue eyes glistened from droplets of fear and desperation. They told the story of the little girl who’d come before her, and it wasn’t a tale that ended happily. He didn’t need to know what the mistake was. They both knew the details didn’t matter.

  “You can die here, or you can die by Elizabeth’s loving hands. Just by being captured, you’ve failed her. By putting the hits on Tamara and Ms. Aldgate, you’ve endangered her and gotten three of her followers killed. That’s twice you’ve failed her.” He pitied her. He reached up and wiped one of those tear trails from her face. “I’m sorry, Stephanie. I wish we could have been friends, but it’s too late for that.”

  She sobbed. His mind insisted he stay cold, but he remembered the Stephanie who’d been in his elementary school homeroom. That girl had been shy, sweet and pretty.

  “I don’t want to die.” The words coughed out between her sobs.

  “There’s only one path left that lets you live.”

  She looked up at him. “You really believe you can kill her? She’s more than three hundred years old.”

  “You know where she’s holding Pete and Tamara, all of her habits, even where she sleeps.” He nodded. “If you tell me all that, then yes, I can kill her…and you get to
live to see another day.”

  The tears flowed again, reflecting the moonlight as they dripped to the ground. The answers spilled from her just as quickly.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Stephanie’s screams and sobs had called after him as he left her in the clearing. He promised her he’d come back and free her, if what she’d told him was the truth. He didn’t bother voicing that it depended on whether he managed to avoid getting himself killed.

  Being on I-64 turned out to be fortunate, because Elizabeth’s house was in the far East End. The interstate got him where he needed to go more quickly.

  The drive reminded him how long it had been since he’d last slept. Grandpa Murphy would probably warn him against going after Elizabeth or any vampire in his condition, but he didn’t see a choice.

  The reason he’d captured Stephanie was by moving faster than Elizabeth had expected. He realized Stephanie added one more life to the list of those now riding on his success. Tamara’s parents were already dead. He just hoped Tamara wouldn’t blame him for that, because he’d underestimated how desperate he’d made the Richmond Coven, how far they’d be willing to go to stop him.

  All he could do now was follow through with his plan to finish off Elizabeth and her coven. The supplies he needed required a stop by his Kia, but he knew that would be safe now. Elizabeth had called him with Roddy’s phone earlier, so that meant he was with her. Thanks to Stephanie, he now knew the full roster to Elizabeth’s coven. She only had Roddy and one other vampire left. That didn’t leave her vampires to spare to watch his car in Carytown. Pity it still had two flat tires.

  He retrieved two spray bottles from the trunk of the Little Hearse and a two-pack of lighters, the kind with the trigger and long, black wand. Despite how certain he was it was safe to be here, he moved quickly and kept an eye out for any possible feeders. There were still four of those creeps out there, according to Stephanie, but he suspected if they were staking out anywhere, then it was likely his house. They wouldn’t be at Elizabeth’s. Only the head feeder was ever allowed there.