Bound

Pt 4

Rain was thick even this high up as the jet swept across moonlit clouds and brushed the stars. Lightening broke in sizzling whips around the plane, illuminating the dreary night and turning into a romantic setting.

Deacon lifted his head from the screen as he glanced over once more to Dale. The flight had been under way for more then an hour and she was still out cold. Quinn was yammering about something as though Deacon were actually listening and Mercury was glowering at him from three feet away where she sat across the aisle. All of this was background noise to the thudding in his head, the rushing of something alien in his body. Given that neither his heart beat or his system rushed, it was an odd feeling.

"So what's in Detroit Deacon?" Quinn asked.

Deacon looked over at him, it was the first intelligent thing Quinn had said all night. "The translations to the Red Stone."

'Why don't we jus torture the girl and get them?" Mercury asked a perfectly level tone, "It would be faster." She stared out the window for a moment. "The sun is coming up soon and we have no place to stay."

"Has anyone got a phone I can use?"

All three vampires jumped and looked to Dale as she carefully pulled herself to a sitting position. Deacon tossed her the cell phone he had and she dialed a number. Her gaze was steady on the floor as Dale held her left arm in her lap and gently rocked back and forth.

"Jake, this is Dale." She smiled softly. "I have a couple of friends who need to use your basement." Her gaze flickered up and over the three of them. "Two men and a girl," Dale grinned then winced as her cheek protested the action. "As I recall that was part of the deal."

Deacon watched as she spoke and that jolt feeling stirred in his system. Her eyes lit up as his often did when he was enthused with something. Her face set into lines that were similar to his.

"Listen Jake," Dale paused as her gaze settled on Deacon. "I have an idea, why don't you meet us there and you can see for your self?"

Quinn frowned and looked at Deacon, who just shrugged. Dale tossed the phone back to Deacon when she was finished and leaned back against the couch.

"Are we staying a basement?" Mercury asked sharply. Anger heavy in her words as she glared at Dale, who only closed her eyes and let out a wheezing breath. "Why not one of the safe houses? There has to be one near where ever we are going."

"Blade will be aware of what we are doing. He will watch the safe houses, he may even strike at them during the day. It is better to go through unused channels, rather then risk being disintegrated."

Mercury opened her mouth to continue her fight when Deacon interrupted her. "Listen to her Mercury. Dale has a point."

His girlfriend swung around in her seat to glare daggers at him and she rose stiffly from her chair. "Just who's side are you on?" She hissed, as her fangs bled out and her eyes shifted colors. "Since when you did you become a human lover?"

"Sit down Mercury." Deacon muttered at he met her gaze. "You'd think you were jealous or something."

Mercury lunged at him from the three foot gap but hit only the chair. Deacon was a few inches away and standing casually in the hall. Quinn started to laugh as Mercury wheeled around and dove again, but not for Deacon, this time she went for Dale.

Dale's eyes snapped open as she was yanked out of her chair and strangled by the female vampire. She would have struggled or fought, but her body wasn't working properly. She stared at Deacon as he narrowed his eyes at Mercury.

"Put her down Mercury." Deacon's tone was very low, threatening with a hint of anger.

"No, I don't think so. Why should I kiss up to this stupid little human? She is nothing." Mercury shook her arm and Dale to make her point.

"Either you put her down or I take your arm off and you put her down." Deacon took a step forward, Mercury backed up a step. "What's gotten into you anyway?"

"Me? Me?" Mercury shrieked. "I am not the one who's fallen for some human bitch. I am not the one who is crawling around like a whipped mutt."

Deacon clenched his fists to keep from lunging at her. "You don't understand Mercury."

"I don't? Then explain it to me Deacon." Mercury shook Dale again.

"She's my-"

"I am his new pet project." Dale gagged. "Why do you think my arm is all taped up? He was testing me." Dale's voice came out squeezed

"You are his familiar?" Quinn doubled over with the giggles as he slapped his knee. "That explains the love sick behavior."

Mercury glared at Deacon. "Is this true?"

"Yes." Deacon kept his tone level.

The plane gave a violet heave and threw its self to the left as it dropped in the air. The interior lights flickered on and off. Deacon lunged at Mercury as she was thrown off her feet, his hands grabbed the vampire's wrist and snapped it. Dale clattered to the floor and let out a cry as she landed on her bad arm. Mercury howled as the plane heaved again and she stumbled into the seats. Deacon grabbed on to the back of one and pulled Dale to him. She clung with her right arm as the plane was once again flooded with light.

"Is everyone alright back there?" The pilot called back as the plane leveled out and the course was smooth again. "We hit some turbulence but we are about five minutes away."

"Good." Deacon kept his eyes on Mercury as she glared knives at him. "I suggest you remain seated until we land."

She looked away first and glared out the window at the Detroit skyline.

Deacon helped Dale back to her chair and carefully looked at her arm. The fall had reopened the wound and it was bleeding slowly. His mouth ached as his fangs drew out and he had to close his eyes for a moment.

"You okay?" Dale asked quietly.

"Just hungry." Deacon sighed and opened his eyes.

Dale watched him a moment before looking at her arm, "So why did you have to cut so far in?"

"The disc was grafted to your bone. Weren't you aware of that?"

Dale shook her head. "No. I was kept under deep medication for two months. I don't know anything that happened."

Quinn staggered his way toward Deacon and sat down across from him. "So D, you ever feel like sharing?"

Deacon shot him a look that made the vampire pale, "No."

Deacon re-wrapped her arm and sat back as Dale leaned into her chair, staring with sad eyes into the city. Her face was closed and guarded as her eyes grew cold like green glaciers.

"Do you know where we are going?" Deacon asked as they dropped closer to the ground.

Dale nodded. "What's left of it anyway."

"Explain."

Dale sighed, "Paul had us set up in a two floor office complex. Thirty offices in all with a huge storage facility right across the street. When we used it, the name on the buildings was Stone Works Medical. We said that our company was a medical supply outfit and that allowed for the twenty four hour operation we ran. The massive supply of computers and so on. Paul had one computer, the primary master; that was the heart and brains of the entire outfit. I programmed it to scan, read, save and translate the findings that Paul would give me. A second computer, the secondary master; was the back up for the primary. The secondary could be linked up any of the remaining two dozen computers, but any changes had to be made through the primary unit. It was the p and s units that Paul had destroyed. But there is still a chance that the remaining twenty four computers might have enough on them to reconstruct an accurate reading."

Deacon made a face as he watched her, "What about Evelyn? We find her; we find the translations, that is what you said."

Dale opened her eyes and smiled at him. "I lied."

The pilot's voice came over the plane. "We're landing boss and the car is waiting for you."

"Quinn, keep Mercury company until we land." Deacon leaned forward and took Dale's hands as Quinn left. He lowered his tone for her ears alone. "Listen to me, if you lie again, I will break your hand, if you cause any more trouble then I'll break your wrist. I'll work my way up until I snap your neck for every glitch you plan."

Dale stared at him. "Deacon I haven't planned any glitches any where. You think I want to be here? You think I am enjoying this little ride? My family died working under a guy like you, my best friend died because he worked for a guy like you. You really believe that I would lie to a guy you? Human I am, fool I am not."

Deacon watched her face and carefully squeezed her left hand; Dale fought against the cry that lodged in her throat. "No more trouble."

**

The rain was cold, hard and biting. It sank into the flesh and drilled it's way to the bones and then went further, seeming to cut to the core of the body. At least that was how Dale felt as she was hauled from the plane to the waiting SUV. Deacon sat behind her with his hands resting on the seat above her shoulders. Quinn climbed in next to her and started flipping through the map on the door. Mercury was silent as she got in beside Deacon.

Dale had to go slowly because of the weather and her arm which didn't please the vampires any.

"So what do we do if these translations aren't on the computers?" Quinn asked after a few minutes.

"We find them another way." Dale slowed at a red light. "There's a computer at Paul's compound not far from Stone Works. We can try there next?"

"And if they aren't there either?" Quinn challenged.

Dale sighed, "Then we start over."

"After we kill you." Deacon said gently has he placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Right," Dale turned a corner and slowed even more.

Leaning forward slightly she narrowed her eyes; damn it, she couldn't see a thing. Pulling over to the side of the road she shuts off the engine and stares into the rain.

"I can't see a damn thing. I'll have to get out." She told Deacon and he lifted his hands.

"Quinn, go with her." Deacon nodded as Dale got out and ran across the street.

Quinn scrambled after her and came up short as Dale stopped at a chain link covered doorway.

"Any way you could take that down?" Dale asked.

"Sure." Quinn uses his good hand and rips off sections of the fence as though they are paper. "Want me to get the door too?"

"No. I got it."

Dale takes out her wallet and removes a plain black card from inside. Replacing her wallet, she inserts the card into the crack between the door and the wall and moves up. After six inches she quickly pulls the card out, a lock pops from inside and the door opens half an inch.

"Nifty." Quinn remarks as he pulls open the door.

"Get Deacon and Mercury, I'll start working with the computers. Tell him to bring his laptop." Dale disappears inside.

Her mind replays what the place used to be like; muted tones of gray and beige blended with black and lit with rows of cream tubes. The offices had been sectioned off by moveable screens in gray that had been maneuvered as the office needed space. At the far left there had been a large flat top table where morning meetings would take place. She used to sit in the chair on the left from the top. Her desk had been a large cubic shape allowing for her twin desk unit and huge desk table. Paul may have brought in the computers, but she had been their Creator, their God. It had been her will that gave them life, so she was the one who operated the p and s units. Primary master had been her own personal computer; no one else was allowed to touch it. Secondary was used with permission only. When Paul had destroyed them he had destroyed a piece of her too.

The rest of the office had been broken up into cubicles, work stations, and even a space for the vending machines and coffee area. The second color had held the lab where the Red Stone was worked on; rock samples, writing samples, everything one could think of was done to that slab of granite. There had even been a vault installed near the last few days, accessed only by Paul and no one else. No one knew what had gone in there or why it had been added, but there had been rumors, he was working on his own 'little project.'

"Dale!"

She jumped and was shaken out of her reverie. No matter how things had been once; they weren't so any more, now it was nothing but shadow rich concrete littered with insulations, mouse shit and other kinds of debris. Mainly, dismantled computer parts and blown out wiring.

Deacon caught up to her and glared at her for a long moment.

Dale watched the way his eyes illuminated in the dark, their color grew brighter and brighter until they were twin fires. Shadows cut deeply across his face in an uneven pattern that made him look like some kind of shadow-demon.

"This shit is useless." Quinn tossed a stray piece of metal across the room.

"There is still something I can use." Dale countered and turned her back on Deacon.

Crossing the floor with careful steps; she came to the over turned desk she had used, a hard cased black box was a few feet away.

"Quinn, turn this table over," Dale snatched the box off the ground as Quinn righted the table. "Deacon, your laptop," Dale held out a hand, after a long moment of eye to eye staring, the laptop was placed in her hand. "Now just give me a few minutes."

Shrugging off her coat, Dale laid it flat and ripped at the lining. Once it was gone she took out the pen light along with a single leather bound pouch. Holding the light between her teeth, Dale set up the laptop and inserted the desk. As the program ran she uncoiled two cables and plugged them into the machine.

"Quinn, could you move that cabinet?" Dale motioned to it and the vampire pushed it aside. The wall behind it appeared to be normal; Dale ran her fingers along the base board and pulled a section loose. A hidden cable connection was revealed. Plugging in the two lines she went back to the machine.

The program had brought up a window that was asking for a password and a username. Dale rubbed her face before starting. PASSWORD: Pandora; USERNAME: Frost. The machine buzzed and hummed until another window popped up. Dale licked her lips as her fingers punched in a string of computer code. The machine worked as fast as she did and it took three minutes to complete the task. Dale stood back and looked around the office as if waiting for something.

"What is that?" Mercury inquired as she leaned over Dale's right side. "It looks like a map."

"It is. This is the power grid for this entire area. I have diverted a portion of energy to here so we can operate."

As she spoke there came a low pitched up as a few of the working lights flickered and snapped to life.

"And he said unto them…let there be light." Dale smiled to herself.

Dale opened the black box and pulled out a slim silver case and a large brown cloth bag. Opening the box she connected it to the laptop and then opened the brown bag. A set of five silver CD's came out of it. Opening the leather pouch Dale took out the disc from the computer and inserted the new one. In the silver box she placed one of the CD's. The computer changed screens as Dale's fingers danced swiftly over the keys, breaking out a hypnotic rhythm of tapping as she hit the buttons.

"What are you doing now?"

"This is commonly referred to as hacking a system. You know how I said Paul kept his own computer at home?" Dale didn't pause as she spoke. "I am weaseling my way into his system and taking out the information on the translations from there to here. I don't know how much he kept at home, but chances are good he kept everything."

"You knew he would do that." Deacon remarked. "Evelyn never had the translations."

"Oh yes she does. I am just getting them another way. I didn't want to mention this because I was hoping to avoid it." Dale paused and changed the CD to a fresh one. From her coat she took out a felt pen and wrote #1 on it. The machine started again.

"Why not mention it Dale?" Deacon demanded.

"Because Paul's people will know he's dead so they will be monitoring his systems. To make it short; they know I am here right now and are probably on their way here. Meaning that we are knee deep in shit and sinking like the Titanic."

Quinn frowned and looked at Deacon. "What are we going to do man?"

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Deacon snapped.

Dale glanced at him, "Would you have believed me?"

Deacon drew in a breath. "Quinn watch the door; Mercury go to the back and Dale hurry it up."

"It's not my fault you've got a crappy laptop." Dale jibed but returned to looking at the screen.

With the last disc complete Dale began unplugging things when the lights suddenly shut off.

"They're heeeere" Quinn called from his post at the door.

"Oh hell." Dale stuffed the discs inside the brown bag and crouched down. Mercury suddenly appeared in the room as bullets ripped through the office space. The vampire dove to the floor with a pissed look on her face.

"Probably using silver." Dale muttered.

"Oh that's just great." Deacon looked around. "How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?"



Just then the firing stopped.

Dale looked up and grinned. "Can you jump white man?" She held the bag in her teeth and climbed onto the table.

Leaping up she grabbed onto a loose wire and dangled for a moment. Pulling herself up hurt and sent rages of pain through her body, but she did it. Forcing her body to wiggle and squirm from the hole and into night.

Deacon and company followed a moment later.

"Hello Deacon."

Deacon spun around and found a tall, dark vampire dangling Dale over the side of the building.

"Hello Khan," Deacon grabbed Mercury by the sleeve as she moved forward. "How nice to see you again."

"Yeah right," Khan shook Dale. "Let's cut through the shit and get to it. You have something I want. Give it here or the bitch dies."

Deacon noticed Dale didn't have the bag anymore. He watched her face; using her eyes she slid them to a near by drain pipe. Deacon understood. "Well now that doesn't seem quite fair to me."

"I don't care what's fair or not." Dale gagged and her eyes widened. "Hand it over Frost."

"Okay, fine." Deacon sighed. "There in the drain pipe."

Khan looked down and in the same instant his head exploded. Dale flinched as bits of thick gore rained down on her and screamed as she suddenly dropped. Deacon snatched her and yanked at the same time. Dale crashed into him and they rolled across the roof. More shots cracked through the night sending Mercury and Quinn diving to the ground.

Dale focused and found herself lying underneath Deacon, his arms closed around her body. Her heart was clamoring to get loose of her ribs as her body throbbed with adrenaline. Deacon lifted his head and their eyes were inches apart. Again that jolt went through him and he could see it flood through Dale.

"You feel it too huh?" He asked. "We aren't exactly family anymore." His tone was a whisper against her mouth.

Dale didn't know weather to let him or hit him and in the time it took her to decide, he made the choice for her. His lips were cool and smooth like winter snow flakes. The ghost of his breath filled her mouth and the jolt became fire that turned into an inferno.

Deacon pulled away and smiled softly. "Open your eyes Dale."

Dale obeyed and blinked several times, she wanted to speak but nothing came to mind so she only smiled.

Deacon moved to his feet, somewhat cautiously and Dale joined him as they both peeked out at the roof. They were hidden behind a ventilation shaft that has survived the clean out years ago.

"I wonder who shot him." Dale whispered.

"A sniper." Deacon gave a slight nod. "Up on the next building you can see the reflection of the scope."

Dale looked. "I can't see a thing."

Mercury appeared beside them, startling Dale. "I have the discs, Quinn is waiting in the alley."

Deacon grabbed Dale around the waist and moved in that blinding speed, leaping in a push of muscles as they dropped to the street below.

"Come on everyone, time to blow this pop stand." Quinn waved them into a stolen green car and they ripped out of the alley.