Token Vampire (Token Huntress Book 2) (14 page)

T
he woman who tried to stop Sydney began apologizing to Mr. Richard. He raised his hand not wanting to hear their excuses.

              “Sydney had no access to those rooms today, without being escorted by Mr. Taine, himself. However, in this instance it was for the better. I don’t know how many of the scientists down there would have been slaughtered, before the concealment team got there.” Mr. Richard said to both Jenn and I, as we walked behind him. He gave me a side glance, looking over me with calculation. “It was reported to me, that Sydney was aided by you, and you are?”

              “This is Ellie, I found her near my compound. It appears she is suffering from amnesia. However we have found that she is good with a crossbow, a sword, and it would appear that her reflexes are very sharp and could contribute to Sydney’s aid within the squad,” Jenn said swimmingly. We continued to walk down the narrow white corridors. The air within the whole compound smelt richly clean. It irritated my sensitive nose. Before reaching the intersection which lead to the different areas of the institute, Mr. Richard walked to one of the doors and stood in front of it rummaging through his numerous keys. He switched the light on as we walked in. In comparison to the rest of the compound, this room smelt of dust and old books. In front of us was a large wooden desk, which had papers sprawled over it everywhere. Mugs which had been emptied and smelt like the rarity of coffee beans. The whole room was surrounded by book cases and sample tubbing’s which were separately labelled.

              “Please take a seat,” he said, offering the two seats, which had piles of books on them. Jenn picked them off and slumped the pile onto the desk. For a leader, he was very unorganized. I followed suit as Mr. Richard sat down in front of us.

              “I suppose it makes it hard to ask about you, if you don’t know who you are,” Mr. Richard began. “But I take Jenn’s advisement seriously. If she thinks you should be pushed towards the military sector, then we can organize something. However, I am not imprudent to Sydney’s wishes and team that is already solidly built. So, if he has no use for you, then we will need to find another department for you to be of use to.”

              “I completely understand,” I said.

              “Perhaps we should organize for her to be an all-rounder,” Jenn said crossing her legs over. “She has already done a round with me this morning administrating our subjects.”

              Mr. Richard raised his eyebrows in surprise. “That is a confidential section.”

              “I am aware, but she had no recollection of what a vampire nor saber was. It was rather odd to hear of someone not understanding the world, and fear we live as humans,” Jenn said. “I trust her entirely and would rather have her as a personal assistant than fighting, however I cannot deny her skill.”

              “A personal assistant, you say?” Mr. Richard mused. “Well then perhaps she can be exactly that until Sydney makes up his mind as to whether he wants her a part of his team or not.”

              There was a heavy silence. I tried to contain the irritation of being locked into another small white room, which had no window or even perception that there was an outside world. They seemed to avoid the sun just as much as vampires did. This entire compound felt as if it were a prison.

              “Sir, about today; what do you intend to do with Mr. Taine? I must admit upon meeting Ellie he acted in a disturbing manner. I fear he might be withholding too much stress, and his overall mentality is becoming a bit distorted.” Mr. Richard sighed.

              “You know I’ve been waiting for you to come back. While you were gone for the four days, we came across something. I need you to help me contain them, with your expertise in engineering; I need you to create me something that will keep
them
locked inside.”

              “Them, sir?” Jenn asked cautiously.

              “On the outskirts of our compound, Sydney and his team found two Hunters. Because they were already manufactured and products of manipulation with vampire blood; Mr. Taine wanted to study them a little further. The results were more receptive than what we had imagined.”

              “You tested on them?” Jenn interrupted, boldly.

              “Well yes, I never had the intentions to; I wanted them to aid Sydney. But the two had a particular attitude that enforced me to believe they were a danger to the compound. So I granted Mr. Taine permission, to see if he could make progress. All our human subjects thus far have not been receptive of the testing. Some have lasted longer than others, but no real result. They were our breaking point. Their body which is already receptive and engineered to vampire blood, took it well. We have been successful in our first creation. We have created something greater than the Hunters, themselves. We could have them right at our disposal to use. But it seems it has a side effect. They can’t be sedated, every time one of the members try to inject them, they can propel the syringe away. They’ve killed four of ours already. It’s resulted in us having to gas them every few hours, but their healing rate is phenomenal. We need to create a new way to contain them for now; we can’t continue using our gas resources.

              “Max and Troy, what were they injected with?” Jenn asked. Her expression was lifeless. I questioned what Yolo might have really been thinking.

              “We were able to take samples of the Hunter’s blood and inject them with that as a bi-product. The results within the first few hours went swimmingly, they were significantly faster, stronger, heightened senses- everything. I told Mr. Taine, to wait for a few days until next dosage so we could gather results. But as you can now see, these are the consequences of him acting out of accordance.”

              I sat there, as if not registering any of the terms or conversation. After all, I had to act as if I hadn’t ever seen a Hunter before.

              “May I see them? The Hunters, I have never seen one before,” I said daringly. Mr. Richard gave me an indecisive expression. I could sense Jenn also looked at me with discomfort. Perhaps, I was pushing my boundaries too much. But I wanted to see the Hunters. I needed to see what they had done to them. This was meant to be a safe place for Dillian and Julia, not a place where they would be experimented on. I needed to see the aftermath.

              “They no longer look to be what they use to be, dear. The Hunters are now ‘special’,” Mr. Richard began to explain.

              “If you don’t mind her being with me while I have a look at their current enclosure, I would be interested to assess it now. I will put aside my scheduling and current project to focus on this one,” Jenn offered.

              “Ah of course, that would suit very nicely. If you don’t mind her being introduced so freshly to her seemingly scary new world, I can permit it. Yes, I think we will make her your personal assistant until Sydney has made up his mind,” Mr. Richard mused. I was alarmed by the care free nature that was installed into their leaders mind. The things they discussed and were doing were inhumane. As a Huntress, I had slaughtered and tortured many. But, I would never dare to experiment in such a way, even if the resources were in front of me. It was a sick and twisted thought process, when they thought this was how they gained strength. Was this why the humans were so easily over powered in the technology era? They fought against one another in their own wars and struggle for power. Ignoring the vampires, which were closing in. It was why their very world was taken out from beneath them. I was educated, that they were experimenting on humans and vampires alike all those years ago. Three hundred years and generations later with limited resources, they still found the means to do such disgusting things. Was this how the humans mind was built? Were they born with such darkness and corruptness?

              Mr. Richard walked us back into the four laboratory rooms. Two women now scrubbed with wet cloths, the pool of blood. Drag marks of the saber’s corpse had not yet been cleaned. What had they done with his body? The drag marks led towards the very door we followed Mr. Richard too. Beside the second room, next to Mr. Taine’s, there was another door. Mr. Richard used another key to open it. The thickness to this door, I noted as he slid it open, indicated that it was in defense against vampires. It was clean cut silver, I avoided touching it as best I could. More stairs spiraled down. The further we walked down, the dimmer the lights became. We were consumed in darkness, where only few lights enabled us to see. I continued to pretend to fumble for the railing as we walked down, like a clumsy human would.

              “Is this room not enough to hold them in? I created the door and dart system, specifically for gifted vampires down here,” Jenn said as she reassessed her work. I was intrigued that she had created this resource. I suppose that was her way to make herself valuable and gain the trust within the compound.

              “Amongst the various other set-ups we have in here, it can contain them. But I want another one implemented specifically for them,” Mr. Richard said. “Tell me how much man power you need and you will have it. I never want these two to escape. I have another team working on a project now as we speak, so we are capable of controlling them.”

              “Controlling them?” I asked intrigued. If he thought the Hunters were giving them attitude before, he had no idea what he was in for. With a lifetime of them being encaged, they would not go down easily, no matter what Hunter or Guild they were from.

“Well yes, we want to use them for military purposes of course, to slowly gain back our world. To restore it, so humans can live comfortably and we can fight against the plague of vampires and sabers alike. But first, we must be in utter control, so we can create more and see to what extent we can push them. But first, they must be controlled.” The rounded stairs began to thin the further we ventured down. I could see that on this level of the stairs, there were large slits all around the room. I focused on a small droplet which hung there. This was another set-up. I could assume that the prisoners had weights on their feet and if they escaped, this water would release. By doing so, it encased them and drown them, until another plan could be initiated. I had studied such a tactic during my Guild years in only the first few years of my studies. This was no longer used by Hunters, only in the olden days, when we were studying vampires ourselves. The world couldn’t possibly afford to have such tactics anymore, we couldn’t waste such resources. Obviously what was contained in this room was deemed very important. I questioned where their resources came from. How did they feed, have water and sustainability. The world was damaged but the resources could still be found, if properly searched for. Perhaps, the founder had created such an ideal sanctuary for them, that they had all these resources unconditionally.

              “If you don’t mind me asking, sir,” Jenn interjected. “You said Sydney’s team captured them, how was that and what were his thoughts on this?”

              “Ah, yes, Sydney. He reported that, they were surveying them from the border for a while, one of them ensnared themselves in one of the traps and the other would not leave. It appeared they had some gift of some sort. However, as soon as the first one was darted and put to sleep, the other seemed ineffective. It took our team seven hours to capture them, but eventually they did. I must admit, Sydney, has gone above and beyond his measure. It’s a shame what happened to his father, but he is capable of helping this project so much more. The boy has a natural instinct like a Hunter himself. It wouldn’t surprise me if his mother were once one and he had some throwback gene. He wasn’t happy about the experiments, but some things have to be motioned to make progress.”

              “Of course,” Jenn agreed indifferently.

              Mr. Richard pressed his hand against a white button and the whole room lit up. There was a concealed square in the middle of the room, surrounded by thick silver box. He then pressed another button, which pulled the silver up and revealed see through glass. “Don’t worry they can’t get to us. This is the thickest and most impenetrable of glasses. Even bullets can’t seep through.

              The Hunters snarled at the bright light and hissed as we approached. I froze on the last step before my feet touched the cement. I recognized both of them.

              “We are planning to test a pair of twins next, that we have within the compound,” Mr. Richard began. “They are only fourteen; however the two Hunters here are twins, and were well receptive to the treatment, so perhaps something within the gene of twins is the answer we have been looking for.”