A Life Beyond Love
Chapter 6: Sacrifice
My vision was blurred as the drugs wore off and I found myself fastened to a table leaving only my hands and torso exposed. They must have known about my abilities and left me in a position with no leverage. Looking around there were lights every where but no one to be found, the ceiling was insulated and sound tight while the walls appeared to be blast proof in case something exploded. The doors were a big giveaway as they were heavy in appearance and largely riveted together. Then just off to my right one of the doors swung open and two men walked in.
"Glad to see that you are awake," he told me.
"What do you want with me?" I questioned. "I've done nothing to you."
"You see that's not true, since you saved dear Luna you have become a thorn in our side. So I think that we will have to do something about that," he replied taking a scalpel from the med table off to my side.
"What are you going to do?"
"An eye for an eye my friend, and eye for an eye. You notice this room is a blast chamber and we have used it many a time to dispose of certain problems. But unfortunately we cannot kill you, someone has put a price on your head, quite a large one in fact and we decided to deliver."
"Another vampire?" I questioned.
"No, they are human," he told me. "You are going to make us quite wealthy, I believe the sum was up to 20 million."
"How nice, I'm glad I'm loved," I told him sarcastically.
"Let me remind you that they simply want you alive, they never specified in what condition," he noted holding the scalpel ever closer to my face.
He had a sadistic look wash over his face as I then knew that I was going to be here a while and this wasn't going to be fun. I winced as he began to draw the blade over the scar on my eye.
"Interesting," he muttered as the cut closed nearly as fast as he cut it. "So that's why they want you so badly, not many people have such a wonderful health plan as you do. Definitely faster than the likens, and still even faster then us."
"Who bought me?"
"Oh no one special, you'll just have to find out," he replied driving the scalpel into my shoulder and heading for the door.
"What have you done with Patience and Kate?"
"They are safe, for now. They are both quite feisty," he told me laughing. "Larz you can have your way with him, just don't kill him, you know we need the money."
"You son of a bitch!" I yelled out as he exited the room and left me with my torturer.
The door shut with a creak and a bang as the large bolt slid across fastening it into place. "Looks like I get to have some fun with you," he told me ripping the blade out.
Taking deep breaths I simply looked at him, "you know I'm going to get out of here and you'll be first on my list."
"Sure thing... shall we," he said locking my head into place on the table.
...back on the other side of the mansion...
The dark figure walked about the halls until he approached a room two large, heavy oak doors adorned its entrance as he stepped through to find a small cell and two girls inside.
"How are our guests?" he asked grinning.
"Wolf will come and get us! Your all dead men," Patience stated kicking at the bars.
"That's funny, because I don't think he'll every make it to this room."
"What make you so sure?" she asked.
"Let them out I have something to show them," he ordered as two men went to the door to retrieve them.
Fastening them together with handcuffs he marched them down the many corridors to the basement where they sat in a small viewing room. Pressing a small button steel doors on the inside of the room opened up and exposed it to the viewers on the other side.
"Larz we have some viewers, lets show them your handy work," he said through and intercom positioned no farther than three inches from the glass.
"Sure thing," he replied tilting the table up vertical.
Patience quickly covered Kate's eyes as Jack's bloodied face come into view. This Larz had completely butchered the one side of his face, removing his eye and ear and large amounts of skin revealing the adamantium coated bone underneath. Patience sat there barely able to look at him, tears streaming down her face.
"Jesus Christ, how could you do this to him?" she demanded.
"Oh it's simply really, take a knife and don't care what the outcome is. The worse the better," he replied signaling to take them back to the cell, he then went back to the intercom. "Is he still conscious?"
"He is in and out, I usually try to time it so that he is awake when I cut him. Do you want anything specific?"
"No, leave him be for a bit, his buyers will be here soon enough," he instructed as Larz removed his gloves and threw a towel over Jack's face.
Out on the edge of the mansion a long limo escorted by a cube van and a humvee in the rear approached the gates. Two officers stepped out and talked with the guard and they were allowed to enter. Proceeding slowly the vehicles made it up to the front of the mansion with no problem at all. The doors to the limos opened and four high ranking military personnel stepped out. They proceeded inside where the door was open and made their way, by escort, the head of the house.
"Where is he?" one general asked.
"In the basement, would you like to get him now and then do the payment or the other way around?" the vampire asked. "You may call me Grecian."
"Alright, let's do the payment and then we'll retrieve him," the general answered.
"Right this way."
They headed into Grecian's office, the same room where Kate and Patience were being held, the general saw them and immediately asked who they were.
"You keep humans as pets Grecian?" he asked.
"No, these two are your boy's. His daughter and wife."
"Really?" he mumbled. "How about another five million for both?"
"Seven."
"Five and three quarter."
"Six and a half,"
"Deal," the general told him as he signaled to the boys the take them back to the vehicles. "Now all I need is for you to enter a bank account number and then hit enter here on this computer then all twenty six and a half million will be yours."
"Perfect," Grecian told them as he punched in the final numbers and then it was done. "Happy doing business with you general..."
"Stryker, call me Stryker," he replied before leaving the room to get his "boy"
The mass of men made it downstairs into the basement of the building and entered the blast chamber to find Jack still strapped to the table and barely conscious. They removed the towel and gasped at what was done to him.
"Fuck for what you've done to him how can we be sure that we have the right man here?" Stryker asked Larz.
"Look," he said taking the towel and wiping away the blood to expose some of the adamantium that was grafted to his skull. "There, solid metal."
"Alright bring him down, get a stretcher, we'll need to pack this guy out," Stryker ordered as two men rushed back to the vehicles.
Larz began undoing the clamps and straps as Jack's body slumped onto his and another man's shoulders. Jack felt the movement and began to stir a bit.
"Hey Larz is that you good buddy," Jack barely squeaked out catching Larz's attention.
"Yeah, how does your face feel?" he asked chuckling.
"A lot better than your will," he said.
All of a sudden Jack whipped around grabbing Larz by the face and drove his face into the back of the upright steel table crushing it upon impact. Absolutely exhausted he slumped to his knees and passed out again.
"That's our boy alright," Stryker said as the two men rushed through the door with the stretcher.
They picked him up and walked him out placing him in the back of the van and running intravenous, along with them were Kate and Patience. The medic that was seated beside Jack began to work on him placing a heart monitor on him and doing tests.
"What are you going to do with him?" asked Patience.
"Rebuild him..."