Ecstasy Unbound (The Guardians of the Realms Series) Read online

  Vane nodded. Since he was most skilled in telepathy, he was the one that relayed their information to Conn at the Guardian compound. Alex opened her mind to her brother, showing him every minute of her time inside Sam’s head. “Got it, I’ll send it to Conn.”

  “Thankfully, father saw the importance of showing us memories he had from all potential enemies or we wouldn’t even know who Cyril and Elizabeth were by sight. The Guardians haven’t shared anything. It’s nice to have a clue who all of the players are since my powers are making us a part of this. It irks that they’re so tight lipped, especially since we’re the ones feeding them the stinking information.” The words tasted bitter on her lips.

  “Yeah, Conn’s usual, “got it covered,” and “thanks asshole,” is grating on my nerves as well.” Vane’s frustration was evident in his tone. He and Erik had been hacking the Guardian systems for years now, and that wasn’t putting them in the Guardian’s good graces. It was mostly harmless pranks. She somehow doubted that mattered to Conn.

  A year ago, when the first victim’s investigation led them to believe the victims were being sent to Tetartos, she, Vane and Erik decided they needed to get the information to the Guardian compound. It was something the Guardians would have to stop. Tetartos was the one location they weren’t able to investigate without it being a one way trip.

  What irritated her was that it was abduction number six in the last freaking year. Why hadn’t the Guardian’s found the females yet?

  From a power she’d rarely experienced through her many centuries, that head hopping was exhausting her with its current frequency. It had been freaking decades since she’d last hopped to someone. Back then, she and her brothers had always been clearer in the roll they needed to play.

  Alex was wiped out. Being pushed into the mind of a victim, and feeling their helplessness, always left her mentally and physically exhausted. It took several minutes of breathing exercises before her body started to relax and retain the small amount of the energies being sent her way through her brothers. She appreciated them sharing as she didn’t want to run to her cave to feed off Earth’s energies before starting the investigation. Her powers were more draining than her brothers’. A flash of anxiety ran through her, setting her nerves on edge. It was the telltale symptom of a knowing. She felt a compulsion to find Sam. Get to her apartment, and find a way to free her.

  She looked up into her brothers’ eyes and knew they’d understand what was happening. “We need to get to her.” She related the location and apartment number Sam had given her to them. “With the time difference we’re looking at her having been captive for almost 24 hrs. We need to get on this.”

  Vane gave her a sympathetic nod, and paused before he said, “I’ll get on the computer now and see what I can find on Sam.” He rubbed her back and left the room toward their office. The one good thing she got with her mental abilities was photographic memory. Hopefully, Conn would be able to decipher the details Alex had seen while inhabiting Sam’s mind.

  Erik continued to hold her. Not rocking her anymore, just sending her energies her way while she sat tucked in the solid warmth of his huge shoulder. The flow of energy coming from both brothers, felt like a soft blanket with a big bowl of mac and cheese.

  Eric studied her face. Concern shining in his pale blue eyes, it tightened her chest. Taking another big breath, she said “Thanks for the energy. I wish I could go back to her. Get more information.” Unfortunately, she had never been able to get back after hopping into someone’s mind.

  “I’m sure Conn’s on it. He’s a close lipped dick most of the time, but this is the kind of shit the Guardians do. Don’t worry. We’ll check out what we can here. Let’s get into the office.”

  “Yeah, we need to get going.”

  I just sent the Conn to information. I’m checking for info on Sam now. Vane telepathed them both. As she got up and straightened the clothes she’d thrown on, she realized a Kermit t-shirt and yoga shorts were not a good look for breaking into a human’s apartment.

  “I’m gonna go change, I’ll meet you in the office. Vane will have the visuals we need by then. I’ll see if I can feel anything with my psychometrics when we get there.” She sometimes gleaned visions from objects. It would hopefully come in handy at Sam’s place. Unfortunately, in the other cases of missing females, their capturers never seemed to leave a trace, either Alex’s power didn’t work with whoever was doing it, or they made sure never to touch anything of the victims. The strong pull to get to Sam’s had Alex hopeful that one of their skills would prove useful in tracking her.

  Something would come from seeing the apartment. She wouldn’t have a “knowing” if she wasn’t able to do something about it.

  For a year, they’d fed information to the Guardians, but she couldn’t help feeling that she was meant to do more. They researched anything they were able to find on the victims, Earth side, but their hands were tied when it came to Tetartos Realm.

  That fell under the Guardians’ job title. Alex and her brothers had gotten snippets of the Guardians’ duties through the years. Enough to understand they were well understaffed. They were tasked, mainly, with not allowing superior beings to subjugate humanity, stifling their growth as a race. They were also charged with all four of the world’s Realms - Earth, Heaven, Hell and Tetartos. That included watching over the sleeping Gods, wherever they had been hidden. Making sure the Tria stayed trapped in Hell Realm. Keeping tabs on the Mageias on Earth, ensuring they didn’t attempt to overpower humanity, though they were technically just evolved humans themselves. They also tracked and contained Demon possessed. As well as working to locate the female Mageias that Cyril and Elizabeth had kidnapped from Earth.

  There were only twelve Guardians, their ranks spread too thin.

  She rolled her shoulders as she headed through the living room, still not feeling quite herself. She needed to shake of the effects of head hopping.

  She, Vane and Erik didn’t test their luck with the Guardians as a rule. They kept their distance. The Guardians were powerful, gifted with added powers by the Creators.

  They had also received a curse of tenfold the pain they inflicted on a human being. An effective curse as it deterred The Guardians from attempting to rule the mortals. Unfortunately, the Great Beings hadn’t anticipated that their grandchildren, the Tria, using possession as a way to create chaos on Earth. The Guardians avoided killing humans, even the possessed since the bodies were human, the demon just a parasite.

  The hair on the back of her neck rose as she walked to her rooms. Something wasn’t right. They needed to get to Sam’s apartment. Her pace quickened.

  Chapter 5

  Sam had just started coming around again only to be faced with more tests and yet another injection.

  She never seemed able to gain enough lucidity to get free of the damn metal cuffs, and even if she was able to, they’d be on her in a second. She fought the feeling of helplessness. Beat it back, unwilling to let it take her over. She would not end up like the others, mere shells laid out on cold metal tables with dead eyes. That would not be her.

  She planned to bide her time, refused to think of what more she would have to endure before an opportunity to escape, presented itself. Could she bear any more? She would have to if she wanted to escape and kill the head guy. She’d started to refer to him as Nazi Fuck. If it was the last thing she did, she would find a way to take him out along with Rabid Bitch, the redhead that liked to flash fang every time she saw her. Sam didn’t care how superior their strengths were, she would find a way out of there.

  She couldn’t figure out their end game. Why the experiments? What were they testing… creating? It had to be something to do with reproduction, which churned her stomach into knots.

  He’d injected them all with something. Looking to her left, the other women oozed defeat, rarely calling out in anguish when the tests turned painful, and some had to be very painful. She’d seen the “doctors” break bones or cut i
nto skin then type away at keyboards. She’d heard tight groans but rarely any screams. The young blonde on the table not too far from hers was going through that same treatment as Sam watched, unable to do anything for the woman. Shit, she looked really young, Sam couldn’t tell how old from her vantage point, strapped flat to a metal gurney like the rest of them.

  She heard rough sounds come from the girl’s mouth but otherwise she didn’t show any outward sign that acknowledged she knew what was happening to her. Was she drugged, or at least numbed, because she looked conscious to Sam. Jesus, she hoped the girl was drugged, not just that lost inside of her mind. Sam knew that would be her fate, soon… if she didn’t focus on escaping and exacting revenge. There was no way of knowing how long the other captives had been here. They were all drugged and kept away from each other. One time Sam had awoken, tried to get up, fallen from her cot and crawled to the bars. She had desperately tried to talk to the other prisoners, to find out what they knew. She’d attempted calling to the cell catty corner from hers only to be greeted by stark silence. Moments later, a guard had come, hauled her ass back to the cot, and injected her again.

  Sam had been between that metal examination area and her small metal cell for who knew how long… days... She focused on the details of the room even though it was like looking through a fog. Her mind fixated on anything she gazed at too long. Damn drugs. She struggled to turn her neck to study the others and their tormentors. Taking in any detail she was able. She searched for anything that would aid her when she escaped.

  The power she had with metal only worked if she could focus, an ability she’d grown up hiding at her parents urging. They’d convinced her she was never to show the talent or she’d be taken from them. Her skills were paltry in comparison to the powers of her abductors, but she’d use them to the best of her ability if she was able to get the drugs out of her system.

  She closed her eyes, willing herself to focus more closely. She would not give up. They’d already done their worst to her. She would get free and make them pay. She’d been in and out of consciousness several times. The stench of chemicals was not as pronounced as it once was. The thought that she was getting used to it scared her.

  Sam did her best to withhold a reaction as Nazi Fuck put one overly warm hand on her abdomen. She tried to seem undisturbed, but his touch felt like acid to her skin. She loathed him so much. The things he’d done to her along with the things he’d ordered done... Her jaw clenched so tight she thought it might break but didn’t utter a sound.

  Never had she felt such hatred for anyone in her life. The desire to kill the bastard was a sickness, eating away at her from the inside. She was sure her body shook with the need to do him harm. As much as she tried to hold back her reaction, she had to remind herself not to attempt anything rash. She was weakened by the drugs, had no weapon and was out numbered even if she was able to break free. She had to endure, for now. She tried not to flinch from his warm touch.

  Attempting to move into her mind she focused on the shine reflecting off the metal ceiling, swallowing to keep the bile at bay. The clicking as he typed on a laptop, sitting high on a rolling rack beside him, seemed more like nails to a chalk board in the relative quiet of the room. The Nazi rarely spoke. None of them did.

  The vast silence in the room was penetrated intermittently with the groans of the patients, clicking and beeping from the medical equipment, and the light tread of movement from the four other things posing as doctors, but words were rarely spoken.

  Only once, in the beginning, had she felt a presence in her head prompting her for answers. She only hoped that the voice belonged to someone, or something, that really wanted to help her. Not some paranormal mind game coming from the evil bastards surrounding her. Those whom the world thought mere myth.

  She forced herself deeper inside her own mind… her only sanctuary. Willing the voice to come to her, to give her hope that she wasn’t alone. That someone was looking for her. Trying to help her.

  Then a disconcerting thought hit her. Who would even think to look for her other than her parents, unless the voice was real? She only called her parents once every week or two and she’d just spoken to her mom the day before her abduction. She and her mom had discussed Sam coming out to Phoenix for her father’s fiftieth birthday in a couple of months. Such a normal thing… it felt like nothing would ever be normal again.

  Sam had a few good friends that kept in touch over the years since school. They’d mostly chatted about their next girl weekend. Something they tried to do at least once a year. They were scattered around the country and were all so busy with lives and jobs... They emailed and texted, but they wouldn’t think anything of her going off grid for probably weeks, at least.

  Her boss, John, or her coworkers would call if she didn’t show up for work. Was it Monday yet? How soon would they report her missing to the authorities? Even if they did file a missing persons report, what would the police be able to do about Vampires? She doubted there was some kind monster SWAT team.

  She couldn’t think of her parents or the friends she may never see again. No rescue seemed likely and it only made her panic. She needed to get back to focusing all semi-conscious thought on how to get free.

  She was forced back to her present situation on the metal table, by the feeling of warmth making its way through her veins. They’d dosed her again. She forced herself to fight the effects. Maybe with practice she would learn to combat the drugs. She had to try. As a haze entered her sight and her tense muscles started to relax against her will, she remembered what happened the third time she regained consciousness. It was something she’d rather forget, but her mind kept replaying… She’d felt the true reality of her nightmare in those moments.

  She woke to the Nazi Fuck and Vampire Bitch staring down at her, the Nazi in his Asian inspired lab coat when he didn’t look Asian at all and the Bitch in a sexier version, a tight fitting, white getup somewhere between a geisha outfit and a sexy nurse costume the Halloween shops always sold. What the hell?

  She was laid out naked on a metal table in a cold, sterile, metal room. It was a kind of sick taunt that metal was the one thing she had power over, but with the drugs and her roiling emotions she couldn’t focus her ability. The room was smaller than the previous room where several women had been laid out, attached to machines.

  She realized in her haze that she was positioned differently than before. Instead of being flat like the other times she’d awoken, her legs in stirrups, her ankles attached securely with a strap. She tried to move and free herself but her body was weak and she was too drugged to do anything.

  The anxiety of her situation beat at her, she was totally open and vulnerable, and sweat started beading on her skin. The drugs kept her in a semi-conscious state, feeling like every movement was made through water, every noise distorted. The Nazi looked even bigger that time, had to be at least seven foot tall. All she saw, through the drugged fog of her mind, were wide shoulders, piercing, dark violet eyes and dark, severely short hair.

  She wanted to plead for help, but crazed monsters of myth who’ve abducted women, strapped them down to hospital tables, in sterile rooms, to perform experiments on them weren’t likely to respond to pleading. The coldness reflected in their eyes made that point more than all the horror movies she’d ever seen.

  Still, she wanted to know why they were doing tormenting her, or maybe she just hoped to delay her fate, “What do you want with me? What are all the tests for?” her voice sounded garbled in her own ears since she was still feeling the effects of the drugs.

  The Nazi cocked his head to the right, turned toward Vamp Bitch, completely ignoring her questions.

  “DNA tests all confirm the gene is there. Have the males fill her with semen to start the process. I have work to do in the labs. Do not do any damage until her body is able to regenerate.” Nothing he said made sense to her, other than to freak her the fuck out “Males?” as in plural? “Semen?” and after he’d issu
ed those orders to the Bitch he hadn’t even bothered to spare her a glance, just exited through a sliding door.

  Her breathing escalated. But, even that felt weirdly slow motion.

  The same two huge men she had seen when she arrived in that hell came through the door. They seemed different this time. One had almost white hair slightly long with pale grey eyes and the other was darker, yet still with pale grey eyes, and both sets were glazed. Not to mention they seemed to be breathing as hard as she was. It was like a movie, a nightmare... They were going to rape her and she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

  There would be no appealing to the female for help. Sam instinctively knew the Bitch was more dangerous than the two males. Even now, the sick Vamp’s eyes were dilated with what, to Sam’s sickened stomach, looked like lust. When the Bitch, with her long curly red hair, and piercing grey eyes, flashed her fangs Sam knew her fears were more than warranted. Was the evil bitch going to join in her rape? To Sam’s horror the bitch took off the ridiculous lab coat revealing a black net and leather teddy.

  The men pulled off their pajama style clothing revealing huge bodies. The blonde was the shorter of the two and he was still right around six foot tall with leanly carved muscle, while the dark haired one was taller and much bulkier along the shoulders and chest.

  One bent as if to kiss her neck or maybe bite her because she saw fang and attempted to flinch away. She was fighting the restraints when the Rabid Bitch stopped him, “No venom.” Sam had no clue what that meant but it sounded like a plus to her. Only, it seemed to agitate the dark haired male. They were both breathing hard, but the dark haired one actually growled at the Vamp Bitch, which only made the crazy fiend laugh.

  “No pleasure for her, she has too much spine and needs to learn her place. That she’s not fit to speak to those above her…” Vamp Bitch sneered at Sam. That’s when Sam saw the fangs had grown even longer. The sight caused her breathing to stutter. The bitch bent to trail the sharp points down to one of Sam’s exposed breasts, and with a quick painful strike, she bit into the fleshy mound. The intense pain caused Sam to screech before she was able to stop it. The Vamp’s eyes closed as she licked at the drop of blood on her lip. She announced with obvious annoyance, “She’s not attached to anyone, too bad, it would have been so much more fun that way.”