"I waited as long as I could to make this announcement," Winkler said. Gavin and I were sitting in the media room inside the beach house, watching the huge flat screen on the wall. It beat our small TV inside the guesthouse all to heck.
"I know you all have been waiting anxiously for me to finish my recognition software, which will assist in the capture of known criminals," Winkler went on. "The preliminary tests were so promising, but I have come to tell you tonight that the project is a complete failure. The software kept developing glitches, which defied me at every turn. So much time and effort has been spent on this project and it breaks my heart to have to abandon it at this juncture, but the sad truth is, it just doesn't work. I know everyone was hopeful that this would help capture some of the world's most notorious criminals, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Not for me, anyway. Perhaps someone, somewhere down the road, will be able to develop something that will work. I wish them well." Winkler stepped down from the podium, unwilling to take any questions.
"When is he coming back?" Gavin asked, turning toward me.
"Day after tomorrow," I said. "He told me he wants to take care of some business while he's there. I think it probably has to do with naming his new Second. I hope it's Davis. Glen and Phil were a little too close for my comfort." I picked up the remote and turned the television off. "I think I'll go roof-sit for a while."
Gavin went off to the beach; I saw him after a while, walking southward. He came back about half an hour later, taking an occasional turn around the house. I wondered if Winkler would need as many guards as he now had. I doubted it. More than likely, the human ones would go for sure. I didn't know about the wolves. Winkler's announcement to the world that the software didn't work would more than likely get the enemies off his back, which was the ultimate goal and sole reason he'd done it in the first place. We'd had a talk, he and I, about how much money was enough and if notoriety was worth your life. Winkler had made his decision.
I didn't need to walk the perimeter that night; I could see everything just fine from my rooftop vantage point. The night was quiet and peaceful around me, and the only sounds came from the insects, singing their endless song.
* * *
I'd had my shower and my almost pint of blood, brushed my teeth and got dressed in my usual jeans and t-shirt, ready to go to work the following evening when Gavin appeared in my doorway. "What do you need, Gavin?" I asked, tying my athletic shoes.
"Lissa, come here," he said. Puzzled, I looked up at him. I had no idea what he wanted, but went to him anyway. I should have run. I should have leapt out the window, turned to mist or done any other thing to get away from him. But I didn't. I had no way of knowing. I do now.
"Lissa," Gavin's voice had suddenly gone as dark as midnight, "You will do only what I tell you to do from this point forward."
I actually felt the compulsion settle over my brain, taking over my will and leaving Gavin in complete control. I shuddered, my eyes wide. The small part of my mind that could still think was thinking furiously, although I couldn't move a muscle. Gavin hadn't given permission for me to move. Gavin was vampire. Who knew how many other compulsions he'd placed on me to forget this or that? I never remembered seeing him eat anything. Or relieve himself, or do any other number of human things. And—the thought hit me and I might have fallen if I'd been able or commanded to by Gavin—Gavin wasn't just any vampire. The Council had found me, long ago. Why had they waited so long to take me? I shuddered again. Was he going to kill me? Right there, while I couldn't move? Winkler would come back and find a pile of ash (or whatever it was that vampires turn into) in the doorway to my bedroom. Would he know it was me? I was sure by that time that Gavin had not only been placing compulsion on me all along, he'd been doing it to Winkler and the others as well.
My skin quivers when I'm frightened, and it was quivering then. I felt it shivering, but perhaps Gavin had no control over that part of me. He left me standing there while he pulled a packed suitcase out of his bedroom and then started throwing clothing into my bag. Was he getting rid of evidence or was I going somewhere else to die? My ribs ached, I was so frightened.
"You may blink," his voice floated down the hall as he walked toward the kitchen, and he was sucking on a unit of blood when he returned. I blinked and tears formed. His voice had changed—the accent was definitely different. How much of a chameleon was he?
Gavin ordered me to pull my own bag and I did so obediently. I had no choice, following along behind him as he carried his own bag toward the road. A car was parked there, waiting for us. Gavin ordered me into the back seat after stowing both our bags in the trunk. He then climbed in on the passenger side.
The driver smelled a bit like Gavin, only with a much lighter spice. Gavin didn't introduce him; I didn't need to know. I was dead and it didn't matter. I did know, now, that the driver had to be vampire. I just hadn't sorted out the complexities of the scent, yet. There wasn't any time to explore that now.
I looked straight ahead; Gavin hadn't told me I could move from my present position. I sat there, my hands in my lap, still shivering and blinking. Gavin never turned his head, never looked back at me and never said anything to his companion while he drove. I saw we were at the airport after a while, where another private jet waited. This one was larger than Winkler's. Two more vampires waited on us when we drove up. Gavin came and ordered me out of the car while one of the others opened the trunk and got our bags out. I wanted someone to explain to me where I was going and what they intended to do with me, but nobody was speaking to me.
"Go up the stairs, turn to the right and wait for me," Gavin commanded. If I'd ever thought myself Winkler's puppet, that was nothing compared to what Gavin was doing to me now. My teeth were chattering by then, my breaths shaky and almost sobs, but I dutifully walked up the steps to the jet, turned to the right and waited. Gavin grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the back of the plane. Two chairs were there, with manacles and heavy chains attached to them. Gavin shoved me into one of those seats and proceeded to wrap the chains across my body, hooking them into clips on the sides before fastening the manacles on my wrists and ankles. Did he think I was going to escape his compulsion? That was ludicrous. I could no more do anything other than what he told me than I could have flown at that moment.
"Do you think that's necessary?" One of the other vampires finally spoke, nodding toward the chains that held me to my seat.