Jeanne C. Stein-Anna Strong 05 by Retribution

Author:Retribution [Retribution]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-13T02:14:30+00:00

She looks at me expectantly as if waiting for a response to her greeting.

I try again. How long have you been vampire?

The expression on her face remains the same—eager, a little puzzled now at my silence. When I probe her thoughts, I realize with a start that she isn’t hearing me telepathically.

You see, Rose says. Something’s wrong. She is much stronger than the others, much farther along in the healing process. She should be able to understand us.

The girl is frowning now, picking up on negative energy without understanding the cause for it. “What’s wrong?” she asks, her voice trembling.

Rose and I look at each other. Neither of us knows how to respond.

The girl is becoming agitated. Her hands fly to her throat, her body begins to shake.

I step to her, put an arm around her, hug her close. She doesn ’t deserve more terror. “I’m sorry,” I say. “Nothing is wrong. You’re safe.” I feel her ribs through the fabric of her top. I turn her back to her bunk. “Sit, please.” She lowers herself onto the bed, clings to my hand.

The other three vamps are watching. The same sense of silence pervades this room that I felt in the other. I project my thoughts into their minds. I get flashes of emotion, but nothing else. No recognition, no response to indicate they are aware of my probe.

Rose echoes the question in my own head when she says, They are not like us. They are vampire, but different.

I look from one of the girls to the other. They are all staring at Rose and me, feeling our anxiety, projecting their own.

Anxiety is the only thing they project. I don’t understand it. I know I heard them in the warehouse. Heard their screams. It’s how I was able to find them.

But now?

The girl beside me on the bunk gives my hand a squeeze. When I look at her, she says, “My name’s Rebecca.” I push my concerns away for the moment. “Hi, Rebecca. I’m Anna. Do you think you could answer some questions for me?” She nods.

“How did this happen to you?”

Rebecca closes her eyes. “I don’t know,” she whispers.

“Can you tell me how long you were there?”

A voice on my left answers. “She was the newest. She was brought in three days ago.” I turn. The speaker is a woman in her early twenties, dark hair, huge eyes. The marks on her neck are almost gone. “They only brought in a new one when one of the others—”

Her voice breaks off. She pauses, gathers herself, continues. “It happened the same for all of us. We are newly made. We were to meet our sires for the first hunt. We were directed to an abandoned building. When we got there, we were drugged. We woke up in hell.” She speaks in a measured voice, calm, detached. She projects an inner strength, perhaps because of all who made it out, she, in spite of her youth, may be the oldest.

“What happened then?” I ask gently.

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