T-shirts with the fang-pierced heart I'd seen during the attack and a pair of matching cargo shorts I could just make out with my peripheral vision.
Gripping the table to either side of my head, she leaned into my face, snarling and showing long yellowed fangs. "Try it again, spawn," she said in a girly voice, "and I'll cut these off." She reached a hand down to my crotch and gave a painful squeeze.
I yelped.
She smirked. "You don't think Maximus would put a female down here if she didn't know how to handle herself, did you?"
I looked her up and down with my eyes since I couldn't move my head much. "I don't know, looks like Maximus has pretty low standards for vampires nowadays. Can't you afford designer jeans?"
"We don't need that crap."
"And what's with these stupid hearts on the T-shirts? Did I miss Valentine's day?"
She ran a hand down one of the fangs on the symbol. "It's the symbol for Blood Rush." She pressed sharp fingernails into my stomach. "Maybe I'll tattoo it on your chest."
I squirmed, trying without success to get her hands off me.
She leaned over. Sniffed my neck. Licked it. "Mmm, so sweet. Too bad you belong to Maximus." She sighed. "Maybe he'll get me my own spawn soon." She walked away, slamming the door shut behind her.
Heartbeat thudding in my ears, I writhed uselessly against my bonds until my skin was raw. Lifting my head as far as the neck strap would allow, I looked at my body and flushed from head to toe. I didn't have on anything except boxers. A trickle of dried blood had pooled on my chest between my pectoral muscles. I gagged again, thinking of Maximus's nasty yellow fangs puncturing my skin.
"One requires help," said a calm, almost emotionless voice from somewhere behind me, sounding as though the owner might be in a far back corner.
I would have jumped except for the straps holding me down. "Really, you think so?" I said, unable to keep the sarcasm down to a dull roar.
"This entity believes so."
"This—what? Entity?" I strained my neck but couldn't twist it far enough to see more than a couple of tables to either side. Parts of the room were dark, florescent lights flickering in fitful spurts.
"Yes," replied the same deadpan voice. "This one is also an entity."
My neck felt sore from all the twisting, so I gave up trying to see whoever was speaking. "Okay, Mr. Entity, can you get me out of these straps?"
"This one is unable to do so, other entity."
"Call me Justin."
"This is a designation?"
"It's a name!" Had Maximus stuck me in here with a brain-damaged vampire? Or even worse, someone suffering dementia brought on by the vampling virus? Cold prickles walked down my spine. "Why are you unable to help me?"
"Justin, this one is also bound."
"Why do you keep saying 'this one'? Do you know how to use pronouns?"
"Pronouns—yes. There are many words inside. And some rules for using them."
"Okay, well rule number one, start using pronouns. You sound like an imbecile."
"This one—I will."
"That wasn't so hard, now was it?"
"This one does not feel the 'I' inside—in me."
My brain struggled to decipher what he'd just said and gave up. "What are you?"
"An entity."
I groaned. "What kind of entity? You sound male. Are you a vampire?"
"I do not know. I look like the others."
"Like Maximus? The tool bag who was in here talking to me?"
"Yes," he said in the same unfaltering tone. "Therefore, I must be a tool bag."
I would have laughed if not for wanting to cry even more. Great. Just great! Not only was I trussed up as Maximus's personal snack pack, but I had the intellectual equivalent of a lobotomized yak to talk with.
The willpower to talk abandoned me. I had to think, dammit. I closed my eyes and saw Maximus's leering face. When I'd accused him of kidnapping my sister, he'd been completely surprised. He didn't know a thing about it. Could Daelissa be behind this trick? Had she somehow faked the entire video? The memory of Bigglesworth's mocking smile and laughter slapped me in the face. His complete lack of concern for Ivy's kidnapping made sense now. That ball of sludge was in on the joke.
Heartache abruptly stabbed me in the chest as another possibility came to mind. What if Ivy had participated in the sham? What if this was her way of getting rid of me?
Please, no.
Daelissa may have cooked up the idea, but it didn't mean she hadn't