Chasing the Shadows - 8. Chapter 8

Kieper tumbled back down to earth. He landed on the hands and knees of a man. The claws had disappeared. No fur remained. His naked shoulders trembled as he silently sobbed, “He’s gone!”

Garrett collapsed beside him, gathering the man into his arms. The animal might be gone, but its rage was still pounding inside of his veins. His desperation remained. “I couldn’t reach him--” Kieper gasped.

“You tried--”

“But they still took him, Garrett” he cried into the night, “all of this is because of me…”

Kieper didn’t have to finish his sentence because Garrett knew exactly what he was thinking.

The Court had targeted Garrett after they had become lovers and the Wolf let him feed from him and now they had kidnapped Shade because he had tried to keep the two of them safe. He softly stroked his cool fingers along Kieper’s feverish flesh, trying to soothe the rage that couldn’t be consoled.

“I want him back!” Kieper growled and pushed himself off the ground and out of Garrett’s arms.

The Vamp wasn’t offended by the sudden release. “So do I, babe,” Garrett took a shaky breath. “So do I!” Garrett knew that Kieper wanted Shade back just as much as he did.

Pumping his Human fists towards the sky, Kieper swore his revenge. “Tomorrow the moon will be full. If they want to play this game then I’ll give them a reason to fear me. Every one of them will be begging me for mercy!”

Garrett grabbed him and pulled his trembling body against him. “No, Kieper,” he tried to reason with him. “They’ll be expecting an attack--”

“But they have Shade!” Kieper’s protest cut him off as his legs gave out under him, sagging against the Vamp’s solid body.

“I know and we’ll get him back, I promise you, but first we’ll have to be patient so we can do it our way.” A vengeful smirk pulled at the corners of Garrett’s handsome face. “We will attack…and they will never see it coming!”

*** 

Distant murmurs woke Shade. His head lulled from side to side as his eyes slowly opened, filled with confusion, unsure of where he was. Trying to shake the cobwebs from his mind brought a wave of nausea. Long deep breaths soothed the churning feeling in his gut, but he still had no idea where the Queen’s Army had moved him.

The tiny metal cubicle was now gone. This new prison was much larger, but it still had the same bright electric lights trapping him in Human form.

Metal cuffs secured his wrist to massive chains suspended from the high ceiling. They held his aching arms tight and outstretched from his chest with his feet barely touching the cold concrete floor below.

Faded smells of motor oil and engine fuel clung to the air.

With the exception of the mounted lights, the rest of the room was empty. Lights, lights, and more lights! They were shining from every direction, making the room brighter than the noonday sun.

“Did you not understand the plan?” The Queen’s voice shrieked from outside the door. “I wanted all three of them brought in, not one…THREE!” Her voice raised an octave at the end.

Shade tipped his head, trying to make out the rest of her conversation.

“I’m very sorry, Your Majesty. The Night Stalker—”

“I don’t want any excuses, Captain. I want to know where the other two are right now. I want you to go in there and find out where he hid them.”

The muffled voices grew louder as they suddenly became more frantic. “But, Your Majesty, we haven’t tested the lights on Vamps yet. The UV mimics sunlight and if it’s strong enough to trap the Night Stalker, it might be strong enough to actually kill a Vampire.”

“Well then,” her voice oozed venom, “I suggest that you test out those lights so you can get me some answers!”

The thought of pledging his allegiance to such a vile woman, made Shade mad as hell. He had trusted her. The Queen not only betrayed him, she had deceived the people she had sworn to protect.

Shade struggled to free his arms, but his restraints held tight. Memories flashed through his mind. Two masked Vamps had dragged him out of the small metal box before stringing him up like a fly caught in a spider web.

The lights had reflected off their protective suits as they tore Shade’s shirt from his body and then pulled off his shoes and socks.

Everything felt more like a dream, then actual memories, but looking down at his bare chest and bloody leg, Shade knew that he had awakened from a dream into a horrible nightmare.

“Wait!” Someone’s desperate screams brought Shade back to the present.

“Thyssen’s expendable. His job is done.”

Someone thrashed about, just outside the metal door. “No! Oh god no! Please don’t! Captain, please stop!” The man begged for his life, but it was no use. Some unlucky Vamp was coming into the light if he liked it or not.

The wide metal doors barely moved as their guinea pig was shoved through the narrow opening before snapping back shut. The Vamp soldier sprawled across the concrete floor as a distinctive CLINK locked the heavy door behind him.

The guy they called Thyssen, thrashed around. Brown hair stuck out from his skull where his hood had been ripped off his head. The futuristic material of his jumpsuit, that was supposed to protect his sunlight sensitive skin, it now had several long gashes along the arms and chest.

Shade watched Thyssen tremble on the ground. His pale white skin blistered under the light, but he didn’t burst into flames. Red marks blotch his face and neck when he looked up, making eye contact with Shade. As he pushed himself up to his unsteady feet, Shade suddenly recognized the man. He was the cocky little Vampire from the park.

“Come on Captain, I want out!” Thyssen shouted while keeping his eyes focused on Shade. “As you can tell, I didn’t spontaneously combust.” The Vamp glanced down at his own red chest. “I’m a little crispy around the edges, but nothing a couple of pints of O-positive won’t fix.”

The door unlocked and creaked open behind him. The Vamp looked up at Shade and winked at him. Shade shook his head and almost chuckled. The cocky son of a bitch actually winked at him, “Unbelievable.”

Thyssen licked his blistered lips as he backed away from Shade, moving towards the door, “Next time I’ll remember to bring my sun block and maybe I’ll stay a while.”

“You do that Blood Sucker,” the corner of Shade’s lips almost twisted into a smile.

*** 

If the Vampires hadn’t been up and walking around, Shade would have assumed it was daytime, but instead he lost all track of time. The constant stream of bright light made it impossible to tell whether it was night or day.

He looked up when another one of those filthy Blood Suckers pushed open the door and strolled inside. The only difference was this one acted like he owned the place.

“Ah, I see that our guest is awake.” His voice was familiar. This was the Captain, the same man that gave the order to ‘get him’ and then shot Shade in the leg back at the cabin.

Shade flinched, jerking his wrists against his restraints. “If this is how you treat your guests then I would hate to see what you do with your enemies.” Shade growled at the man.

The Vamp flashed a fangy smile. “I’m sorry that I hurt you Mr. Shade, but if you just tell me where McQuinn is hiding then you’ll be free to go. It’s as simple as that.”

Shade rolled his eyes, wishing the asshole would burst into flames right now. His baseball cap and dark sunglasses shielded his face and eyes from the brutal lights as he continued to step even closer to Shade. Suntan lotion coated his white skin. This guy wasn’t taking any risk of getting burned.

Shade didn’t like him and decided to antagonize the guy a bit, “I didn’t know they made SPF 10,000!”

“That’s very funny Night Stalker.” Captain chuckled.

Shade tried to shrug his shoulders, but couldn’t move with his arms strung up, so he had to settle for cocking a perfect black eyebrow. “Yeah, well, I try.”

Without warning, Captain punched Shade in his ribs. The plow knocked the wind out of his lungs. “Let’s try this again, Mr. Shade, shall we? Where the hell is Garrett McQuinn?” His gloved hand grabbed Shade’s chin forcing him to look the Vampire in the eyes.

“You…can go…fuck yourself,” Shade growled between clenched teeth.

“Fine,” the man let Shade’s chin slip from his hand. “We can do it your way.” The second blow broke the ribs that the first punch had only cracked. Shade gasped, but the man didn’t stop. Captain continued to beat his chest until red and purple marks covered his skin.

“What about now? You change your mind yet?” The man winked, “Now are you ready to talk?”

Shade spit a glob of blood onto the floor. It stained his white teeth red when he gave the depraved Vampire a wide arrogant grin. “I’m sorry. I take it all back. You can go fuck your friends waiting outside.”

Hissing through his fangs, “If you tell me where they are, I promise to kill you quickly.”

“How thoughtful of you.”

“Just wait, Night Stalker. Soon you’ll be begging me to kill you.” The Captain whispered. His lips were close enough that Shade could feel his cold breath on his skin.

Shade wanted to provoke the man even further, but before he could taunt him again, Captain pressed a dagger to Shade’s jaw. The hard metal bit into his flesh and with a flick of his wrist, he sliced Shade’s skin.

The cut was deep as a gush of hot sticky blood ran down Shade’s neck and over his blackened and bruised chest.

***

The dawn was elusive. The relentless electric lights made the prison hopeless. There was no way to distinguish time. Minutes felt like days where hours passed in seconds. It was relentless.

At one point, the prison grew very quiet. Shade strained to listen to the silence. Assuming that the soldiers had all fallen into their death sleep, relief washed over him. Even if every Vampire in the compound was suddenly gone, Shade was still tied up, bruised, wounded, and worse of all he was trapped in Human form.

There would be no relief from this torturous situation without darkness. Flesh and bone would never heal as fast as his Shadow form could.

Unfortunately the peace, it was only an illusion. No sooner had Shade relaxed enough to close his eyes to welcome some sleep, the Captain would re-appear.

Captain had already done a number on him, alternating between brutal punches and cruel slices cut along his tender flesh. The Queen must have forbidden the man to drink directly from Shade. Captain’s eyes would flash red with the desire that Shade’s dark blood stirred inside the Vamp, but he would only taste the remnants of Shade’s blood when he would lick his tongue along the cold wet blade.

The beatings suddenly stopped as quickly as they had started. Without a word, the Captain turned and walked out of the prison, leaving Shade to suffer alone.

*** 

“How do you know that she will lead us to Shade?” Kieper spoke softly to avoid anyone hearing him. They traveled all night to get to the palace and had arrived just as the Queen was returning home, only moments before the sun would be hitting the horizon. Her guards were on edge as they ushered her inside of her massive home.

“That bitch is behind all of this,” Garrett growled, crouching in the tree line. “Just wait. When night falls, she will lead us exactly to where they’re keeping him.”

“But you said they’ll be expecting an attack.”

“They will…for tonight. That’s why I’m going to just watch them while you head north of here to change for the full moon. They’ll triple their security planning for an attack tonight and when it doesn’t come, in a few nights when they think that we’ve abandoned Shade. They’ll let their guard down…and that’s when we attack!” Garrett’s plan was efficient, but Kieper still didn’t like the idea of leaving Shade with those monsters for a second longer than they had to.

*** 

Sleep toyed with Shade. His body ached and every time he closed his eyes, images of Kieper and Garrett flashed before his eyes. It would have been a welcome sight if his worried mind hadn’t conjured images of their mangled dead bodies.

At least the Captain’s demanding questions reassured him that they were still safe. Somehow, they had avoided being captured.

The Captain was determined. He was cold and calculating. He was going to get answers or he was going to kill Shade while trying. Shade lost count after the first couple of beatings. The man was sadistic and enjoyed inflicting unspeakable pain as he alternated between using his fists and his dagger to try to get Shade to give up Garrett’s location.

Each sound of the metal door made Shade’s hair stand on end. “Crap,” Shade muttered under his breath. He took a calming breath to ease his frazzled nerves. His heart raced anticipating the next wave of pain.

When it didn’t immediately come, Shade feared that Captain had come up with a new kind of torture just for him. Maybe he was changing gears and going to try some new form of psychological warfare.

“Captain hasn’t hurt you too bad, has he?” Thyssen’s soft voice was filled with concern.

Shade flinched when the Vamp from the park gently touched his bruised ribcage. He glanced over Shade’s multiple injuries, his left eye was black and swollen closed and the wide split in the center of his lip was crusted with thick dried blood.

The tips of Thyssen’s fingers poked through his leather gloves as they gently caressed the overgrowth of black facial hair covering Shade’s chin. Thyssen’s military gear was now gone. His faded jeans and hoodie pulled over his head, made him look more like a harmless college student then a cold blooded killer.

“Nothing that the shadows won’t heal.”

The guy looked around the brightly lit room. “I’m sorry that I can’t do anything about the UV lights. Captain would rip my heart out if he knew that I was even in here--”

“Then why the hell are you here?” Shade jerked at the chains.

“I thought you might be hungry. The others have been Vamps for so long that I think they’ve forgotten that Human’s need food.”

“I’m not Human!” Shade growled.

Pulling an apple out of his pocket, “So are you saying that you’re not hungry too?” Thyssen teased and held it near Shade’s lips.

POP! Juice dripped as Shade unexpectedly bit into the fresh ripe fruit. It was sweet and delicious. Thyssen let Shade devour the entire apple before producing a bottle of water to wash it down. Watching Shade lick the sticky apple juice from his lips, Thyssen chuckled and shook his head.

“You’ve been watching me.” It wasn’t a question. Shade was just stating the facts. The Vamp shrugged his shoulders then slowly nodded his head. “For how long?”

“A while.” Vague.

“And Maggie?” Shade held his breath waiting for Thyssen’s answer. Shade had always loved Maggie like a sister. The young girl was one of his dearest friends. Her betrayal would be far more devastating than that of the selfish, arrogant Queen.

“She was just a pawn. Once she believed that you were in trouble, she unknowingly led us right to you.”

Relief washed over Shade. Maggie had not willingly turned him over to these monsters. He glanced around his prison still unsure why the little Vampire was here. “Why would you want to help me anyways?”

“You saw what they did to me. They didn’t know that the lights wouldn’t kill me, but it still didn’t stop them from throwing my ass in here, now did it?”

“What’s this gonna cost me?”

Thyssen gave him a boyish grin and stepped closer. Reaching out, Thyssen gently ran his cool fingers along Shade’s bruised chest and then he leaned in closer, inspecting the dozens of small cuts across his torso. Most of them were crusted with dried blood, already starting to heal, but the bullet hole in the center of his thigh was still open and oozing. The Vamp dropped down to his knees to inspect it closer.

When he looked up at Shade, he saw the man shudder. The shot was a through and through. It missed the bone, but the muscle was severely damaged. It smelled of burnt flesh, blood and infection. Hopefully, Thyssen thought to himself, the infection hadn’t already spread.

“This is going to hurt.” The Vamp made quick work of licking the dried blood away from the edge of his wound. Before Shade could ask him to stop, he nicked the tip of his tongue on his own fang. Mixing Vampire blood and saliva in the wound started to regenerate the dying cells. The Vamp couldn’t ease his pain, he knew it was going to be excruciating as he plunged his tongue deeper into the wound.

Shade struggled to breathe. The pain was unbearable. His leg was on fire. It felt as if thousands of red-hot spikes were ripping his flesh off. He tried to pull away from Thyssen’s probing tongue, but the guy wrapped both hands around the back of his thigh, holding him tighter.

Wanting to scream from the pain, Shade bit down on his lower lip and whimpered. He had to keep quiet to avoid alerting the others. As his flesh regenerated, Shade strained against the chains and pulsed on the tips of his toes.

It was over quick. Long soothing laps from the Vamp’s tongue brought Shade back to reality. His leg was now healed, but he was still imprisoned in this hellhole and the Captain would just find another way to inflict more pain on him. Shade let out an exasperated breath. “What day is it?”

Thyssen shrugged, “You’ve been here for four nights.” He watched as disbelief pass over Shade’s bruised face.

“The full moon has come and gone,” Shade muttered under his breath when it suddenly hit him like a punch to his gut.

Werewolves were their strongest when the moon was full. That was when they were practically unstoppable. At the start of the new lunar cycle, they would be at their weakest, most vulnerable state.

If Kieper and Garrett were going to come for Shade, it would have been during the full moon, but that time had come and gone, along with his hopes for rescue.

Shade couldn’t breathe. He suddenly realized that they had abandoned him. He didn’t want to believe it, but it was perfectly clear. They hadn’t come for him.

He was heartbroken.

What did he expect? Kieper and Garrett had a relationship together...not with him. He had heard the two of them professing their love for each other, but Shade must not have fit into their equation.

“Leave me.” Shade fought back a wave of desperation as the muscles flexed in his clenched jaws.

“I’ll see if I can find you something else to eat--”

“Don’t bother.”

Thyssen’s eyes narrowed in on him. “Without food you’re gonna die.”

“I’m gonna die anyways!” Shade needed to be alone. “Your Captain is going to kill me eventually--”

“Then just tell him where they are!” Thyssen growled.

Shade stared at the floor, defeated. He had risked his job and his life for them. At least he could take some comfort knowing that they would still be safe when the Vamps finally took his life. “I can’t tell him where they are because I don’t know. I guess they took off after the attack and they obviously weren’t too worried about coming after me.”

*** 

“Do you think enough time has passed?” Kieper’s voice was laced with fear.

Garrett crouched along the tree line. There were even fewer guards tonight. They had watched a few more leave each passing night.

Just as Garrett promised, the Queen led them right to where they were keeping Shade. She had him in an old abandoned airport. The cluster of metal buildings showed signs of wear, but they were far from dilapidated. After watching the Vamps for a few days, Garrett was sure that the large center airplane hangar had been converted to Shade’s prison, which sat only a few miles away from the Queen’s palace.

They spent the last few hours getting ready for the prison break. While Garrett stole them a getaway van, Kieper had stocked it full of supplies. He got blankets, clothes, food and even an emergency medical kit.

Garrett hoped that they wouldn’t need the kit, but he wanted them to have it just in case. Shade had been with those monsters for days. It was hard to tell what kind of pain they’d inflicted on him.

Thoughts of pain and unspeakable acts had Garrett’s rage ready to explode. He suddenly stood up, signaled that it was time. “I’m not leaving Shade with those Blood Suckers any longer. We’re getting him out of here tonight…or we’ll die trying.”

*** 

“Well, well, well…what do we have here?” Shade’s eyes snapped open. He hadn’t heard Captain come in. The man glared at him as he noticed his healed leg.

Shade knew the man didn’t really expect an answer from him. He was starting to think that that the Captain only spoke just because he enjoyed hearing his own voice. “It looks like you’re still able to heal without your precious shadows, Night Stalker.”

Watching him slowly pace around the room, Shade braced himself for the inevitable.

Captain circled him once and then twice. On the third time, pain suddenly shot through Shade’s back. “Well, I guess I’m gonna to have to do something about that.”

The man punched Shade in the ribcage just below his shoulder blades. The man was skilled at finding someone’s weak spots and using them to his advantage. Shade gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to scream out in pain. Grabbing a handful of black hair, Captain jerked Shade’s head back and whispered against his ear. “You can stop me at any time. All you have to do is tell me where to find McQuinn.”

Waiting for an answer drove Captain into a rage. He pounded his fists against Shade’s back until he sagged, limp against the heavy chains. Stepping in front of his prisoner, Captain grabbed his chin and forced him to look at the man. They were face to face.

“One word, that’s it and all of this, goes away.” He growled through his clenched fangs. Shade could feel his cool breath on his face.

It was tempting to make up something, anything that would make the sadistic vampire stop, but Shade would not give in. He shook his dark head. Kieper and Garrett might have abandoned him, but he was not going to betray them.

Shade slowly shook his head again and then cast his eyes to the ground, waiting for the next wave of pain. He didn’t have to wait long. Shade never saw the cold shiny dagger before it was plunged deep into his chest.

Shadow Chasers live for a long, long, long time. Death is something Humans usually fear, not Supernatural Creatures.

Shade tried to breathe, but only a gurgle rattled his chest. The pain was overwhelming. He had always wondered how he would die. It was ironic that after centuries of working and living with Vampires that one of them was going to kill him. Shade finally closed his eyes. If he was going to die, he didn’t want his very last image to be the Captain’s evil grin.