Chapter 12 - Capture
Deke was galloping full out and Blaze was giving her all for him as they raced across the range. He silently thanked his dad for bestowing such a magnificent animal to him on his sixteenth birthday, so many years ago. Blaze was the fastest horse he had ever seen and he needed every ounce of speed she possessed to escape this posse.
The sheriff and his posse of Carpenter's men had come out of nowhere to take pursuit of him. He knew his cover was blown as soon as they cut him off on the road to Carpenter's home. The sheriff had smiled and tried to draw Deke in, but he could tell by the intent look they all gave him that the posse was formed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that was Deke himself.
In an instant Blaze and he were running for their lives with the posse in hot pursuit. He had no clue what had blown his cover, he just knew waiting to find out would be a deadly mistake. He was blessed that not only was Blaze fast, she also had endurance.
She stretched out and ran with the wind, her mane blowing in loose waves as every muscle in her body tensed from the exhilaration of racing the devil. Blaze loved to run and it showed. Her nostrils quivered and she grunted softly as she spread out her long legs and showed the posse what she had. She easily put distance between him and his pursuers, as the feeble horses they rode didn't come close to her magnificence.
If he only had open range before him there was no way they could ever catch him. Unfortunately, he was unfamiliar with this land and was headed straight for a cliff. By the time he saw it he had few options to avoid it. It was a long expanse of cliff and he had no escape. He turned and was galloping along the cliff, but the posse knew the land and had spread out to cut him off. With guns drawn they blocked his way, giving him no choice but to pull Blaze up and surrender.
Rance had him dead to rights, his gun aimed at his chest. He bitterly told Deke to dismount and discard his own gun. Deke complied, cursing his bad luck. Rance strode up to him and stood seething before him, a look of complete and total hatred contorting his face before swinging his hard fist into Deke's jaw, knocking him to the ground.
"So Rance, tell me. We have a problem?" Deke needled as he returned to his feet.
Deke had never learned to keep his mouth shut. His dad always said he had the sense of a mule. Deke figured if they were gonna kill him, he might as well have his say. Deke Winchester didn't back down from anyone, whether they held all the power or not. It just wasn't in his nature.
Rance held complete contempt for this man who had infiltrated their operation and betrayed them. He loathed him and vowed he would pay for his treachery at some point in the most slow and painful manner he could imagine. Regretfully, as much as he hated Deke, his hands were momentarily hogtied, since Carpenter had decreed he was not to be killed. Still, his boss had failed to demand he not be damaged.
Rance took that oversight as a license to inflict pain and suffering. He took another swing at him, but this time Deke ducked and punched Rance in the stomach. The sheriff moved in to help, but was waved off by Rance.
"He's all mine. You men keep out of it." He declared.
"Well, you want me, here I am." Deke taunted, his fingers motioning the foreman to come on back for more.
Now the fact was Rance had at least forty pounds of muscle over Deke, but then again, Deke was quick and agile. A betting man might be torn over who was the safer bet, but with the backup Rance had, it seemed evident to Deke he was going down, regardless of what Rance had told the sheriff. Even if he won this fight, the posse was not going to let him go.
The final outcome really didn't matter though, cause Deke would savor taking Rance down a peg or two. He swung at him and connected with his smug face and Deke felt a certain satisfaction in wiping that stupid smirk off his face.
Rance responded with several hard jabs to his ribs, reinforcing the pain that had lingered since his saloon brawl, before Deke moved away again and connected his own jabs at Rance's ribs. They battled back and forth which each inflicting considerable damage before Deke connected on one final punch to Rance's ugly mug and he went down for the last time.
Deke stood confidently over the Carpenter's foreman reveling in his victory, until he got a stomach full of the sheriff's rifle butt.
"Deke, you sure know how to make enemies. I don't like being made a fool of." The sheriff informed him, as the rifle came crashing across the side of his face knocking him out cold.
Hours later Deke awoke in a dark, barn like structure, his arms tied tightly behind him around one of the support beams as he sat legs straight out on the floor of the structure. Coarse rope burned into his wrists as he tried to free himself. The pain of his bumps and bruises was of little concern at this point. His injuries were not life threatening, while his situation certainly could be.
He felt a cold breeze brush over him and he shivered as Lila approached, a sinister grin on her face and a frigid gaze to her eyes. He tensed involuntarily as evil came to claim him. He urgently pulled at his bindings, trying to loosen the tightness of the ropes, praying they would break free and there was some way out of his predicament.
Lila was dressed all in black: skintight, black riding pants and boots with a black shirt two sizes too small as the buttons strained from the pressure of her ample bosom. Some would consider her a mighty fetching vision, that is if you're into the whole hellcat from Hades look.
"Lover, I'm disappointed in you. I thought you were one of us." She intoned.
"No, not really. Not really into the whole blood sucking thing." He wisecracked, still twisting at his bindings with no success; the rope chafing his wrists, drawing blood as he struggled.
"Well don't worry, you will be." She whispered as her lips pursed seductively in a menacing smirk.
Deke's heart stopped when he considered her plans for him. Damn, why did he have to be so attractive to the opposite sex, especially the evil bloodsucking kind? He sure as hell didn't want to spend all eternity wrapped in her evil arms.
She knelt down over him, her legs straddling his, her face inches from his, leaning in, rubbing her cheek to his, exerting her dominance. She sat back on his legs watching, smiling. She stroked his face, gently touching his tender bruises, brushing down over his dazzling eyes, running her fingers through his hair, taking his handsome looks and claiming them as hers, hers alone, whispering,
"So pretty. So sensual. I've wanted you since I first saw you and I will have you."
"Not if I have anything to say about it bitch."
"Don't you see, Deke? You don't have a say. In case you haven't noticed, you're all tied up. It turns me on to see you like this, all trussed up, vulnerable, just waiting for me to take you." She smiled that chilling, confident smile that could tempt him to swear off women for all eternity, if only he could escape from her clutches.
She placed her hands on each side of his face holding him steady as she moved in and took his luscious lips into her mouth, caressing her tongue over him and tasting his essence. He felt like gagging, but her hands were tightly wrapped on him and he could barely breathe with her sucking on his mouth and savoring him.
She pulled back suddenly and before he could thank the heavens for releasing him from her torment, he saw her second set of teeth descend and she quickly sank them into his exposed neck.
Damn, this was not good. She took a long drag of his blood before she released her hold on him and sat back again on his legs with his blood still dripping from her mouth. Her tongue licked the last fresh drops from her face as sinister laughter rose from her lips.
His neck throbbed from the bite and burning flames shot out from the wound. His vision blurred for several seconds from the loss of blood and his mind raced as the peril he had descended into fully sank in. Fuck! She smiled at the anguish she saw him simmering in and relished the power she held over his future, his very existence.
"Don't worry lover, you'll be there soon enough. You think you don't want it, but once I give you the gift, you'll never know how you lived without it. You'll live forever and you'll have more power than you could ever imagine." She leaned in close, nibbling on his ear, twisting her tongue into the crevices and whispered, "We'll be together forever." Lila rose up and seductively backed away.
"Think about it lover. Join us or die. I know what you'll choose." Lila was chilling in her certainty.
"You might as well kill me now, cause I won't ever be one of you." Deke declared.
"Yes you will. I want you and Daddy's little girl always gets what she wants." Lila gloated.