Hey, everyone! We're getting close to the end with these two. As always, thanks to my editor, who patiently points out my typos. I also want to thank everyone who's read so far! Please, if you read, review and leave a comment! I love to hear your reviews. It's like freaking crack!
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Chapter 8
Parker felt the splash of water onto his face. The cold rush was like a slap, stirring him. "What...what the fuck?" He murmured.
"Well, that got you awake." Parker's eyes opened to blinding light. A headache was ringing through his skull, throbbing like a million little gnomes were beating on him.
Standing over him was Mina Wright. That blond doctor who-oh, right, was a vampire too. Was anyone in this town normal? He supposed not.
"Why are you doing this?" He grunted.
She was looking down on him from above. Parker took stock of where he was. In a lab somewhere, that he could tell. The plain taupe color of the walls and sterile air told him that much.
"Well, it's all relatively simple." She said. "You're what a were would call a 'mate.' The mutts have these people, biologically compatible with them." She picked up a syringe from her tray.
"And so, what, you need a new lab rat?"
"Precisely." She remarked.
Parker looked down. He was restrained to the table with a pair of heavy leather straps. His right arm was hooked to an IV. "And what do you want?"
"Well, it's simple. If I can figure out a way to detect what separates you, I can go through my data and determine how to detect that in others. It'll be remarkably profitable. Vampires across the globe would pay good money for a blood source like you."
"You want to start human trafficking? Oh, this is bullshit." Parker rolled his eyes.
"Hardly. This is going to be incredibly profitable." She said. "My experiments with Eric proved so. Your blood is powerful. Drinking it multiplies our strength and powers."
"Alyse will find me." Parker said. "She'll find me and she'll hunt you down, bitch."
"Not with the magicks I put in place." She smirked. "Now, I'm going to inject you with this." She said, indicating the syringe. "It's a mixture of my own, designed to bring out some of the vampiric traits in you."
"Vampiric traits?" Parker shook his head. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."
"Really?" She smirked. "You were originally training for the Illegal Substances Unit, four years ago. During a training accident, you wounded your knee. They doctor who saw the injury said you'd never run again, and that you'd work desk duty for your career."
"I got better. It was a shitty diagnosis." Parker retorted.
"I know better. What happened was that your vampiric blood saw to it that you healed. Stronger, better than before. I'm right, aren't I?"
Parker bit his lip. "This is all fucking crazy." He shook his head.
"It's crazy, but it makes sense." She smirked. "Now, this will hurt..." She injected the solution in the syringe into the IV drip. "A lot."
Parker almost immediately felt his body burn with terrible pain. He'd never imagined anything could feel this bad. Every single cell in his body seemed to yell at him. Imaginary needles sunk into his every pore.
He'd never been a screamer. Instead, he only gritted his teeth, He woudn't let his pain show, he told himself. He had to get the better of this insane vampiric bitch.
And he could hear her voice, in his ear. It had a scientist's tone of careful study. "Curious..."
Alyse jerked in her seat. She had been sitting through a meeting with one of her brethren, discussing a matter over whether he could reveal his nature to his girlfriend. Then the pain shot through her. It was not terrible, no worse than anything she'd experienced before. But it was constant, all over her. She knew, somehow, that the pain was not hers, that this was only her feeling it because of a bond she shared with Parker.
"Lady Alyse?" Xavier, the vampire, asked. "Are you all right?"
Alyse shook her head. "No." She bit back the pain, summoning her training. Long ago, when she'd refused to take blood, pain had wracked her. Those times had taught her that pain was only something else to be mastered. She fought back against it, dulling it down. "Xavier, can we speak another time? I fear I have some business that has just arisen."
He nodded. "Of course, m'lady." He said, and he walked out of the office.
She hadn't wished to do that, but there were more pressing matters at the moment. She reached for her phone, and dialed Sheriff Kelly's number. The two of them had known each other's cells for a long time, as the respective leaders of their people in town.
Kelly answered on the first ring. "What is it, Alyse?"
Alyse stifled a grunt of pain. 'Parker. Is she with your deputies?"
"Um, no, he went to Dr. Wright's house alone. He said that he wanted to follow up this, didn't want to distract any of us."
"He's in trouble, Kelly. Please, I need to find him."
"Meet me at Wright's place in fifteen, all right? I'll bring Fisher, and we'll see if Parker made it there."
Fifteen minutes later, Alyse stepped out of her car. Parker's SUV was already there, she noted. "What the hell happened?" She snarled as she approached Kelly and Fisher.
