Chapter 86
"Actually, she's with me," a man's voice said as Kahlan was snatched away from the stranger.
"Hey!" the man yelled and bristled as he turned to face the newcomer. His hand grabbed Kahlan's arm. "She said she was alone."
Before Kahlan could shake him off, Sebastian's eyes flashed to yellow. "And, I said, she's with me," he told him as he reached out and grabbed Kahlan's other arm.
The man swallowed, immediately stepped back, and spread his hands out to the sides. "Sorry, my mistake," he offered and then quickly left the room.
Kahlan sucked in a breath and opened her mouth to speak, but the next thing she knew, they were in a small room completely alone. Her hand shot out and fisted in Sebastian's shirt to keep from falling.
"Easy," he urged her as his hands shot out to steady her.
She pushed him away, though, as her face scrunched up and she smacked him. "Aaron picks me up when he does that!"
"Sorry, I just. . ."
"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded as she took another step away from him.
"Me? I was going to ask you the same thing! Did you even know that man was a vampire?"
She rolled her eyes. "We are in a vampire bar, aren't we?"
He sighed. "He would have taken you to his private room and drank from you."
"You don't know that," she tried.
He raised his brows. "I could see the hunger in his eyes, eyes that were fixed on your neck!"
She folded her arms across her chest. "I knew what he wanted."
He huffed. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"Not likely."
"How are you even here? How could you possibly know where this place is? Aaron supposedly disappeared before he ever got home to tell you about it."
Her eyes narrowed as she tensed. "You're not actually accusing me of anything, are you Detective Bartles?" She took a step closer to him. "Because if you are, then that connection you supposedly have with Aaron isn't all that great of a connection if you can't sense how we feel about each other!"
He licked his lips and wilted. "No. . . I didn't mean anything, I assure you." He winced. "It's just that when David told me you here, all I could think about was how mad Aaron would be if anything happened to you." He sighed. "I'm sorry."
She huffed. "If we don't find him, he won't be getting mad at anything!"
He looked her in the eyes. "You don't really think vampires had anything to do with it, do you?"
"No." She sighed as he went over to the little table and sat down. "But who better to try and find information on hunters than maybe some of their victims."
He sat down across from her. "Victims of hunters generally aren't alive, so they can't give any information."
"Aaron saw hunters in Hawaii and dealt with them. I was hoping that there was some other vampire who might have done the same sort of thing here in DC."
"And you just thought you, a human, would be perfectly fine asking about hunters in a bar full of vampires?" His brows rose with shock over her audacity.
"If they compelled me to tell them the truth, I'd tell them what they needed to hear."
He smiled. "That's how you got in. The bouncer thought he'd compelled you."
She shrugged. "It was either going to work and I'd get in, or he'd turn me away."
"Or he could have taken you into the back room and used you to fill up a few bottles to serve the next customers."
Her eyes studied him, and after a few moments, she snorted. "That's not true. If this place was like that, you would have never brought Aaron to it."
His eyes narrowed as they searched her. "You seem pretty sure of that."
"I was willing to bet my life on it."
He sighed. "You're right, but you still haven't explained how you even knew about this place."
Her smile was sly. "You're not the only one connected to him," she put out in in a cocky tone, but she turned away from him. "Or, at least, I was," she muttered.
He mentally cringed when he saw trying to blink away tears, and he reached out a gentle hand to her arm. "He's not dead. Please, find some peace in that."
She reached up and wiped her face and turned back to him as she threw Hotch's watch onto the table. "We traced his watch and got the address."
He chuckled. "Well, that should make Christian relax a little, at least."
"Why?"
He laughed even more. "Because he is certain there is something. . . How should I put it?" He licked his lips. "Sinister, about you, and he was certain you found the place out of sheer want."
She laughed. "I wish."
He stood up. "Well, if you want to talk to vampires, the best way to do that is with a vampire on your arm." He stuck out his elbow towards her. "Mrs. Hotchner, would you do me the honor of allowing me to escort you tonight?"
She took a long breath and stood up. "It is I who would be honored, Mr. Bartles," she told him and then slipped Hotch's watch back into her purse.
As he walked her towards the door, she smiled. "And I guess with you being an ancient, more vampires will be willing to talk, huh?"
He smiled. "That, or they can be compelled."
"I think I'm going to like working with you, Detective."
"Like wise," he agreed as he held open the door. "And the first person we should talk to is the. . ."
"Bartender," she finished for him. "They know everything."
He nodded and led her out into the main part of the bar.
XXXXX
Hotch's heart skipped a beat as he stood up in a rush and looked at the chimera with wide eyes. "Arena? What the hell do you mean?"
A low growl escaped Leo's bottom mouth. "The arena is where they make us fight," the goat head told him. That voice was higher pitched and quivered a little.
Hotch studied Leo for a moment, then the room around him, and then the doors on each side. As his breathing became ragged, he looked back at Leo. "They make us fight each other?"
Leo's whole head bobbed up and down. "Very good."
Hotch tried to swallow the lump of dread growing in his throat but he wasn't having any luck with that. "And I guess it's to the death?"
A strong growl vibrated Leo's cage's bars. "It's barbaric!" The anger in his tone was accentuated by its snake-tail swishing back and forth tensely as it hissed. "And they call us monsters!"
Visions of dog fights and cock fights that Hotch knew went on came to mind. While the thought of animals being forced to kill each other hurt him to the core, the people who cheered and hollered while watching it had always pissed him off. He knew all about the kinds of people who enjoyed seeing pain and such. Hell, he'd dealt with enough of those types of people with his cases. He took a deep breath and blew it out as he moved to the other side of his cage to be closer to the chimera. Even though he knew which questions he had to ask, he so very much did not want to find out the answers, so he swallowed and decided to ask the easiest one first. "How long have you been here, Leo?"
The snake hissed and struck out towards Hotch as the beast growled. "Do you really want to know?"
Hotch cringed but found his voice. "Please."
"Nine moons have passed since they captured me."
Knowing that each full moon took about twenty-seven days, Hotch figured that Leo had been held for roughly eight months. Jesus Christ!
The lion face frowned. "You are a vampire, aren't you?"
Hotch frowned. "Yes, why?"
The snake head jutted out and the chimera's whole head turned to look at it and then slowly turned back to look at Hotch. "I've never heard of a vampire who partakes in Christian beliefs."
Hotch eyes were full of confusion and then he realized what he meant. "Oh, well, I've only been a vampire for a little while. I guess old habits die hard."
The lion snorted as he turned away and headed towards the far corner of his cage. "You can lie to these monsters all you want, but I will not tolerate it!" he insisted and then flopped down on the ground and turned away from Hotch.
"I'm not lying!" Hotch insisted, but Leo just curled back up and ignored him. Hotch shook his head. "I thought you could read my mind. Why can't you just check to see if I'm lying or not? And why would you even think I was?"
Leo sighed and looked back at Hotch. "I can't really read minds. It's more or less like I can hear your internal dialogue." He stood up and faced Hotch completely. "But if you were that young then you wouldn't be in the champion's room, you'd be in with the fodder."
Hotch studied him. "Champion's room?" He took a step closer to the bars and grabbed them as he stared the creature down. "You mean you've fought in these damn fights and won?"
All four of Leo's eyes appraised the vampire. "You're not lying?"
Hotch forced himself to relax. "No, I'm not. Please tell me about the fights."
Leo sat down on his back haunches. "Not until you explain to me how you are the way you are."
Hotch wilted and then sat down on the floor. "I'm not sure I can explain it that well. I still don't understand it all, but I can tell you that the warlock. . ."
Leo's snake hissed and twisted around in apparent anger at the mention of their head captor. "His name is Alucious Kassis, and he is the most vile human to ever walk this earth."
Hotch nodded his agreement. "He called me an alpha, but I really don't know what that means exactly when used in that context. The other vampires I know haven't ever met another like me, so they couldn't even explain it to me except for what they'd heard in stories and rumors, and a couple of them are ancients."
Leo looked at the snake and then back to Hotch. "An alpha is rare in any species."
Hotch fought against rolling his eyes. "That much I figured out."
"I have only seen a couple in all of my years, but never a vampire one," Leo explained.
Hotch shifted a little closer to him. "How old are you, Leo?"
Suddenly a rat skittered across the floor of Leo's cage but one huge talon stopped it in his tracks and before Hotch could wonder what the chimera was going to do with it, he tossed it into the lion's mouth and it disappeared in one gulp.
Hotch cringed and turned his head away and was careful not to think anything bad that Leo could hear.
The goat head laughed, or at least that's what Hotch thought it was doing. The sounds coming out of it were more like little strangled cries. Once he swallowed, the lion head smiled. "What? Have you never been so low that you've had to resort to feeding off of vermin?"
"No. Thank God, no," Hotch admitted as he tried to urge his own stomach to calm down as he looked back towards the empty pail and wondered if he actually had. With as disgusting as the blood had tasted, he thought it was a good possibility that it had come from rats.
"You will if you last that long."
"But they fed me, do they not feed you?"
"They do, but the amount grows smaller and smaller as they prepare me for another fight. See, the hungrier a monster is, the fiercer it will fight."
Hotch locked eyes with the lion's. "Explain it all to me, please."
Leo took a long breath and then stretched out as he laid down completely. "You know the stories of the gladiators?"
Hotch nodded. "These fights have spectators?"
"Oh yes. There are hundreds if not more of them screaming and cheering, and the more gruesome the fight, the louder they yell. The warlock makes quite a bit of money off the betting that goes on. Of course, he sets the odds and picks the fighters."
Hotch licked his lips as his mind reeled. "Do we only fight our own kind?"
The chimera shook his head. "There isn't even a pair of most of the species here. He pits us against each other based solely on monetary and entertainment value."
Hotch shook his head. Son of a bitch!
"Exactly," the goat uttered.
Hotch tried to force down some of the fear and worry that was creeping up his chest. "How many fights have you been in?" Knowing the chimera had referred to himself as a champion told Hotch that he must have been good in the arena, but he wasn't sure how many fights he had been made to participate in.
Leo hung his head. "I have killed 12 supernatural beings."
Hotch swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat. "Is every fight to the death?" he asked because Leo hadn't actually answered him the first time he'd asked.
The lion huffed. "Some of the beginning ones weren't."
Hotch ran a hand along the back of his neck. "And everyone has to fight?"
"First, they take what they can get from you and then you are trained in the pits. Once they think you are ready, you are turned out into the arena."
"Alucious wants my blood and Tyrese said that they could only take it once a week, but he implied I may not survive until that happens again." He laid back against the bars. "What happens to those who refuse to fight?"
"They try to turn even the most timid of creatures into fighters one way or the other, but if they're not, if they can't be made to fight, they're turned into bait or food."
Hotch's head snapped up as his breath hitched in his chest. "Were you serious about them using humans as food?"
The snake switched back and forth. "That's all that some of the creatures will eat."
The blasé way he'd stated that made Hotch wonder if the chimera ate humans.
"Some things are offered as a reward for winning, too."
Hotch sank even further down the bars as his spirit sank, too. "You wouldn't happen to know a way for a vampire to die without a stake or an axe, would you?"
"Lose," the cnimera said simply.
Hotch huffed as he shook his head slowly.
