Bound

Pt 3

Minutes ticked by very slowly before Deacon sat back from her as Dale continued to stare at him. His eyes lightened as he smiled slowly and he laughed suddenly.



"Paul says that you are Edward's granddaughter."

"You put a lot of faith in that man." Dale countered and saw him grin.

"You don't."

"He watched as my family died in a hail of bullets. He was supposed to protect us and did nothing. I owe him nothing other then a shot to the head." Dale looked down at her arm and stared at the pale line of scars. "Perhaps more then that."

Deacon was so quiet she had to look up to know he was still there. He was watching her closely and his eyes held a guarded, closed look that resembled someone thinking a new thought.

"Dale," He said her name as if unfamiliar with it. "Dale do you know why I want to waken La Magra?"

She shook her head. "Paul never really let us in on the know about things. As long as the program I wrote worked, he was happy."

Deacon stood up and crossed to the desk, he pressed a button on the telephone and a moment later Paul walked in. He looked pleased and content until he saw Dale sitting there with nothing changed. His expression slid from Dale to Deacon and back.

"Paul, do you know what it means to fail on this mission?" Deacon asked lightly as he sat on the edge of the desk, arms crossed and a calm look on his face.

"Fail? But Lord Deacon, I brought the girl." Paul waved to Dale. "I did what you asked; she has the disc in her arm."

Deacon frowned at him. "What makes you think it's the right disc? It could be a virus that would destroy the system."

Dale snapped her head up and stared at Deacon. Her mouth dropped open as Paul looked confused.

Deacon continued easily. "What is to stop her from having left the disc somewhere else? Say her apartment or the last place she called home?"

Paul blinked once as he finally comprehended the situation. His head turned to Dale and he lashed out in a quick motion. Dale slid to the floor as her head spun and her vision blurred. Pain roared through her system and filled her head with a buzzing hiss of noise. Dale was dimly aware that Paul was suddenly screaming and the room was just as soon quiet.

Deacon crouched down in front of her and lifted her chin to stare into her eyes. "Where is the disc Dale?"

"I won't tell you." She muttered as her head swam wildly around on her shoulders.

"You will tell me eventually." Deacon's face smiled at her and that was the last thing Dale remembered.

**

At first nothing penetrated her clouded head and it took her a long time to figure out what she was staring at; a black chair, with a large black man in it. Dale blinked and felt her face protest and wondered what Paul had broken this time. As she thought it her mind kick started and she was agonizingly aware of her entire body. Flexing both hands sent pain up her left arm and her right arm was numb. Dale slid her eyes to the left and saw thick white tape and gauze that went from her elbow down her past her fingers. Looking to the right she saw a plastic tube stuck in her arm. Pale blue liquid was flowing into her system from it.

Sound reached her and came in disjointed patches that she pieced together as an argument. Dale didn't bother to listen as the door opened and she saw Deacon step in. He leaned against the door and let out a sigh as something smashed against the door.

"Jealousy?" Dale asked lightly and Deacon jerked his head up. His eyes focused on her and Dale was aware of the jolt that went through her.

"Mercury is the jealous type." He admitted lightly and nodded to the black man to leave. Deacon took up the chair and pulled it closer to her bed. "Welcome back, you crashed for a while."

"If you knew that disc wasn't the real one, why take it out?" Dale flexed her left fingers.

"I wasn't completely sure it wasn't my disc." Deacon touched her arm and traced a small scar on her skin. "How'd you get that?"

"Paul." Dale wanted to pull her arm away from him, but her muscles weren't working properly. "What have you given me?"

"A sedative of my own making, it will keep you from doing anything rash."

"Me? Rash?" Dale tried to smile but her face her too much. "What about my face?"

Deacon looked at it for a moment. "He broke your cheekbone and left a nice hand print in remembrance."



Dale was over come with the sudden urge to cry and try as she might a single tear slid out. Her lips, had she been able to feel them, would have trembled. It wasn't as though she felt any great loss, she had lost everything years ago. It was more like a need to release all the pent up emotions. Inhaling deeply was pure pain and she flinched and felt her back spasm. Tears came and she had no way to stop them, her body wasn't hers to control anymore.

"Dale?" Deacon sounded distant and he touched her face.

Her eyes opened and he looked a little more then concerned. "Hmmm?"

"Dale hang on."

She smiled and the pain didn't register. "Hang on to what?"

**

Deacon paced angrily back and forth in his office as he kept glancing at the computer station. It was working through the disc which he had removed from Dale's arm. It wasn't a virus program like he had initially thought, but it was something else all together. A heavily encrypted mesh of scattered data that had no apparent use and yet he knew that wasn't true. Deacon stopped in front of the station and hit a button the keyboard. The program stopped running and froze on a single image. Using the mouse Deacon framed it and zoomed in. There was a moment of humming as the computer adjusted the settings to make the picture clear. He drew in a sharp breath at the face he stared at. Edward.

Deacon backed away from the computer and after a minute the machine started the program again. Deacon watched the rush of images and finally realized what they were. The disc contained various snap shots of Dale's family over the generations. Deacon drew in a breath and shut off the computer turning his back on the black screen and leaving the room.

He was angry for more reasons then he wanted to talk about. There was something in Dale that sent a jolt through his entire system. It wasn't attraction like he was used to it, it was something different, something that ran so deep that there was no depth perception to measure it. Deacon leaned against the windows that looked out at the downtown skyline. His mind kept showing the look in her eyes as she fell unconscious; it was a look he knew all to well, a look he had instilled in many people. It was fear. Dale was scared.

"She should be." Deacon snapped and the words were empty.

He could feel the vacancy in them and it annoyed him greatly. How could it be that this one girl would disrupt his whole world? She hadn't even done anything yet and perhaps that was what scared him the most. Dale had done absolutely nothing and yet Deacon's whole center was off balance.

"Boss?" A voice called through the dark. "We have a sighting."

Deacon lifted his head and realized he had pressed it against the window. "Fine. I'll be right there."

Deacon made a detour to Dale's room first and looked in. She was out cold and was peacefully resting as shadows wrapped around her. He stared at the lines of her face, the shape of her mouth and nose. It was all so similar to his face.

"Deacon? They need you."

Deacon shut the door and crossed the floor to the other half of the room. Quinn and Mercury were arguing bitterly again and Deacon knew what had caused it.

"Face it princess, you got sloppy." Mercury snapped at him and Quinn shouted back at her.

"Quinn shut the fuck up," Deacon heard the familiar chill in his voice and was able to shake loose his troubles for the moment. "What happened?"

"Blade was there D, he was waiting for us again." Quinn waved his arms in the air and Deacon noticed he had lost another hand. A thought crossed his mind, there had to be better help, but Deacon shoved it aside for now.

"Blade was there? What about the target?" Deacon asked.

Quinn waved to Mercury, "Ask the ice queen over there, she lost the brat."

Mercury glared at Quinn, "It wasn't me who couldn't take down an old man."

And the bickering started again.

Deacon sighed as he rubbed his face absently. "People, what about Blade?"

They both looked at him and were quiet for a moment. Deacon looked at them, a frown crossing his face.

"Did either of you notice which way he went?"

Mercury glared at Quinn, "That was your job."

Deacon threw his hands in the air and left the room as they started at it again. He didn't realize where he was until he found himself staring at Dale. He frowned at himself but pushed it away. Reaching down he shook her gently.

Dale's eyes fluttered and opened as her breathing staggered and hissed for a moment. "Deacon?"

"I need you to wake up for a minute." Deacon sat down next to her and she followed him with her eyes. "The disc you made; the one with all the pictures on it, why did you keep that one on you?"

Dale smiled a little. "It had more meaning then the other one. All I have left is on that disc and I was afraid to loose it."

"I'll give you a trade," Deacon said quietly. "The real disc for the other one."

Dale watched him. "No. I can't."



Deacon frowned at her, "Why not?

"I give you that disc and you unleash La Magra and then what?" She watched him closely. "The whole world is turned into vampires? What if we don't want to be a vampire?"

Deacon narrowed his eyes. "What makes you think you'll be alive when that happens?"

"Because you've seen the disc, you won't kill me." Dale said simply as her eyes clouded over.

"Don't you dare fall asleep," Deacon shook her again; Dale opened her eyes and stared at him. "Blade just went after Lionel Kelly and his house, how long do you think it will be before he comes here?"

Dale focused on Deacon. "Lionel Kelly?" She stared at him a moment. "Evelyn lives with him."

Deacon nodded. "Blade grabbed her."

A spark lit behind her eyes and she was suddenly fully awake. "Evelyn is with Blade? Shit, she could blow the whole thing." Dale threw back the covers and put her feet on the floor. "Where are my jeans?"

"We threw them out." Deacon stood up and went to the other side of the room. Opening a closet he tossed her pair of gray sweat pants. "What do you mean Evelyn could blow the whole thing?"

He turned away as she dressed and heard her leave the room, Deacon followed her quickly.

"Evelyn was Paul's favorite, he gave her the pass-code to the whole system. I was the one who built it, but Evelyn was given the key to the lock. When she hears that Paul is dead, she'll assume I did it and crash the system. That means you'll never get your translations."

"What about the disc that you made?" Deacon insisted.

"There was no disc!" Dale snapped as she opened the door to his apartment. "Don't you get it? Paul wanted La Magra to himself, he never allowed me to copy anything."

Deacon stared at her, "Paul wanted La Magra?"

"Yeah. He wanted to do your plan for a different reason. Paul was hell bent on destroying the human world. Where you are hell bent on teaching the Pure Bloods a long over due lesson." Dale paused before stepping out. "Listen Deacon, I understand you didn't think much of Paul, but he wasn't a complete fool."

Deacon crossed to the door and grabbed her arm, "You are not leaving here!"

Dale stared at him. "How do you plan on stopping Evelyn? Do you even know what she looks like?"

"Of course I do, we went to snatch her tonight."

"Why?"

Deacon blinked at her, "What do you mean?"

"What prompted you to suddenly go after Evelyn? Did you get a call from someone or did you find a letter, anything?"

"I got a call from one of my Familiars, they work in the same building as Evelyn and they told me she was working on something that would interest me." Deacon said and saw the look of doubt on her face. "You think it was a trap?"

"I do." Dale waved a hand into the hall, "Chances are Blade used the Familiar to try and draw you out."

Deacon got a look of thought on his face for a few minutes. "He doesn't know what I am doing."

"Maybe not, but he knows your up to something. He knows that something is happening." Dale sighed. "He was in Detroit before Paul destroyed the project. There was rumor that Paul got spooked by Blade and decided to end it."

"Do you think Blade got hold of anything?" Deacon asked.

"No. Paul had everything, and I mean everything, destroyed." Dale leaned back against the door and hugged her left arm to her side. "Trust me Deacon, I wouldn't say this if there was a chance I was wrong. I have lost everything to that daywalker and I wouldn't make this up."

"So where are the translations?" Deacon asked carefully.

"With Evelyn." Dale felt her eyes begin to burn. "If you find Evelyn you find the translations."

Without warning her knees gave out and Dale slid to the floor, out cold. Deacon crouched above her head and touched her hair lightly. It was thick like his, warm and smooth, like Edward's had been once. Deacon didn't welcome the next thought in his head: she was all that was left of his line.

Dale breathed slowly in and out, Deacon rolled her over. "I knew you would tell me eventually."

"Hey the human tried to escape!" Quinn shouted as he came running into the room, followed by Mercury. He stopped short when he saw Deacon. "Caught her huh D?"

Mercury glared at Deacon

Deacon lifted his head to look at them, he didn't acknowledge the look on Mercury's face. "Get the plane ready, we are going to Detroit."

"What's in Detroit?" Quinn asked. "Blade is here, man."

Deacon stood with Dale in his arms and carried her back to her room. "Just get the damn plane Quinn."