"Are you questioning me?" Gavin snarled.
"No. I'd never dream of questioning an Assassin." The vampire backed off but I'd caught the tiniest bit of contempt in his voice. He might not have meant for me to hear what followed that comment, but I did. "The mighty Gavin Montegue, afraid of a tiny female."
Gavin moved the chains aside and sat in the seat opposite me while the others found seats toward the front. There were three vampires, aside from Gavin and me, sitting in the body of the plane with another two up front—a pilot and co-pilot. Vampires flew planes. If I hadn't been so frightened, I might have found it slightly humorous.
Gavin could have done any number of things during the flight to keep me from being so frightened, but he did nothing. I sat there with heavy chains crossing over my body, staring straight ahead while the jet took off and flew to some unknown destination.
Dawn was only an hour away when we landed in New York. I only knew that because one of the others mentioned it, but that's all I knew. Gavin unhooked my chains and ordered me to exit the plane. A limousine waited to whisk us to an unspecified location. Someone said safe house. I had no idea what that meant. Was this where I was going to die? In a safe house? If so, then they were using a different dictionary than I normally did. But then these were vampires. I wanted to laugh hysterically at that thought. I was vampire, too, but these were so far removed from what I was at that moment it was frightening. It was almost like watching a humanoid race appear from outer space and change everything you ever knew until it was no longer recognizable.
We arrived at a three-story brick building where I was escorted to the basement. Gavin pointed me to a bedroom where there was a bed in the center and a cot over to the side. I was ordered onto the cot and told to sleep. My eyes closed immediately and darkness descended.
* * *
"Yes, we have her," Gavin was speaking into his cell phone. "We should arrive roughly two hours before dawn." He listened for a few seconds. "I can hold her at the prearranged site, but is there no way to convene the Council sooner?" Another period of listening followed by, "Of course, Honored One. I do understand." Gavin snapped his cell closed and glanced over at the sleeping Lissa. She hadn't wakened; he hadn't told her she could. He sighed.
* * *
"Wake." That was the first word I heard. I was still alive. Perhaps it might have been a blessing if he'd just killed me while I slept. Easier for both of us. Gavin was an Assassin. I hadn't imagined that from the night before. "Take this," a unit of blood was placed in my hands. "Drink." I drank. I couldn't finish it but he'd told me to drink. I drank it until it was gone and then coughed up half of it. Gavin cursed and ordered me to clean myself up with a towel he brought from the bathroom. He then flung clothes at me and ordered me to change. Had I said mercurial, before? If there was a greater polarity between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I was seeing it now.
"Shit, Gavin, what did you do?" Gavin flung my bloody clothing into a trash compacter while instructing me to walk in front of him. The others looked like they were ready to leave. The one who'd spoken to him the night before was questioning him again. At least somebody wasn't afraid of him all that much. I hoped he lived over it.
"She can't finish an entire unit of blood," Gavin grumbled. "I forgot about that."
"Well, hell, look how tiny she is. What the f**k were you thinking?"
"Will, this is not the time," Gavin growled.
Will had straight, dark brown hair and more than likely was quite attractive, if I'd been in my right mind to notice such things. Not as tall as Gavin, though, or as wide across the shoulders. "Come," we were back to one-word commands. Once again we loaded into the car and drove to the airport. Once again I was chained to my seat, looking straight ahead while we took off and flew for hours.
Somebody said Heathrow when we landed and I knew where we were. London. Where Daryl said the Council was. I was being taken to the Council. It was going to be a public execution. I blinked away tears. I wanted to sob, but Gavin hadn't said I could. How big a criminal, according to vampire law, was I? What had I done? I suppose I might find out when I stood in front of nameless, faceless vampires. Would Gavin kill me while I stood there, helpless and under his compulsion?
"She's crying." Will again.
"Turn the f**k around," Gavin growled. Will turned around. We taxied in, coming to a stop where another car waited for us. The driver brought out silver manacles and Gavin handled them gingerly while he snapped them on my wrists and ankles. Silver didn't burn a vampire's skin. It made me feel weaker, though. Another chapter for the FVM. There wasn't any need for a manual, now. I was on my way to die and would have no use for it.
"That one looks dangerous, eh?" Definitely a British accent.
"She killed twenty werewolves," Gavin snarled.
Was that my crime? Killing twenty werewolves to save the Grand Master? Did the Council have something against him? Did they want the peace to fail as well? Why hadn't they killed me in Texas? At least I would have been somewhere close to home. I was glad Don wasn't alive to worry over me, now. I was far from home, facing death and I had no idea why.
We drove more than an hour, and I was placed in some sort of cell when we stopped. The manacles were left on my wrists and I was locked in a nine-by-nine cube made of concrete, steel and titanium. The cube was furnished with a small bed only, bolted tightly to the floor. I might have liked a bath, but that didn't seem to be an option. Gavin told me I could move freely but couldn't attempt to escape. I huddled on the bed instead, picking at my silver chains. They were alloyed with something else I could tell, perhaps steel or titanium. I found myself wishing more than once that I'd died from the werewolf bites. It would be over now. I'd always been something of a reincarnationist; the Eastern religions had appealed to me more than others traditionally held in the United States. What had I done in a former life to deserve what I was getting now? Somehow, I knew when the sun rose and I slept.
"Come," Gavin was back and holding the door open. He handed a towel to me when I walked through the door and I was instructed to go before him down the long hallway. At the end was a doorway with a shower off to the side. Gavin unlocked my chains and set them on the sink, ordered me to disrobe, turned the water on and instructed me to get inside the tiled cubicle. The water was colder than I liked, but I hadn't been allowed to speak. I couldn't tell him I wanted it warmer. The taps tempted me as I washed under his watchful eye but I hadn't been allowed to touch them. I was paraded naked down the hallway after drying myself at Gavin's command. Clothing had been left inside the room for me while I bathed. I dressed after Gavin told me to do so. He replaced my chains, too, while someone that I couldn't see beyond the cell door handed off a unit of blood.