Chapter 114
"What the. . ." The confusions on Brian's face was obvious as he leaned as far away from Kahlan as he could. "Yeah, he's in the freezer. Why? What difference does it make, and why the hell do you care?"
Kahlan's arm shook because she had to fight against the strong urge to kill the man instantly. "Where?"
"Where what?" he asked as he cringed and looked at Chuck seeking a little help.
"Where is the fucking freezer, you sick bastard!" she yelled as she let the tip of the knife slice into the skin of his neck. It wasn't deep enough to cause any real damage, but it was deep enough to draw blood.
He winced. "It's at the end of the back room," he confessed as he glanced at the other door off the room. "What the hell is this?!"
Just then, one of the top panels in the elevator fell to the floor and Sebastian and Christian dropped in.
The man's eyes widened even more, and he looked at Chuck. "What the hell is this!?" he demanded to know. "Is this some sort of robbery or something?"
Sebastian smiled. "No, Brian, we don't want your money," he explained as he moved closer to the man still in Kahlan's hands. "We want to shut down this horrendous business," he added as his eyes flashed to yellow.
That made the man flinch and yelp. As his breathing quickened, he looked at Chuck and then to Kahlan. "But you passed the tests!"
She smiled and nodded. "That's because we're human beings, Brian," she told him and then nodded to the vampires. "But these guys. . . not so much."
Christian shut the gate, so the elevator would go back up to Rossi and Cam and then turned to Kahlan, "Go to the freezer, we have this bloody asshole."
Her inhale was deep as she stared at the man in her clutches.
Sebastian shot a look to Chuck and he nodded and moved to his best friend. "Come on, Kay. Let's go check that freezer," he urged as he put a gentle hand on her shoulder. With as hard as she was gripping the knife, he knew how badly she wanted to kill the man, so he gave her a squeeze. "Kay?"
"There is information we need from him, my dear," Sebastian told her.
She huffed and then shoved the man at the dark-haired vampire. "Take him!" she yelled and then turned toward the door.
"You can't leave me with these things!" Brian screamed as Sebastian grabbed his arm and held him no matter how hard he struggled to get away.
Kahlan stopped, turned back to him, and then inhaled to speak, but Chuck smiled. "Believe me, you're safer with them," he told him and then went and opened the door.
"But I'm bleeding! They'll. . ." Brian started as panic made his voice a few octaves higher.
Kahlan turned back again. "That's not bleeding," she started and then threw the knife with deadly accuracy. When it sliced his cheek open, his hand flew to his face as he screamed, and she smiled. "That's bleeding!"
Sebastian shivered and had to fight the vampire within him down as blood poured over the man's fingers, and he shook his head. "Thanks," he uttered and then swallowed hard.
She shot him a look that said she was sorry and then dug into her thigh pocket and retrieved a full syringe. "Here. Wake Willie up," she told Christian and then threw him the needle.
He caught it, nodded, and went into the cooler, as Kahlan and Chuck went through the door.
Kahlan's brows furrowed as she shot a look to her best friend. He took a deep breath and shook his head. Before them was a long hallway with a bunch of doors on each side. Her eyes roamed over them but were drawn to the metal door at the very back.
"Don't open any of them," Sebastian said as he suddenly appeared right beside them. Kahlan looked back to see Brian still holding his cheek, and Sebastian smiled. "Not to worry. I compelled him not to move."
"Why shouldn't we open them?" Chuck asked him.
"Because he's a harvester and anything could be behind them. You two go to the freezer, and we will check the other doors."
Kahlan nodded. "Alright." She bit her lip and then looked at the ancient vampire. "If it is him. . ."
"Freezing cannot kill him, my dear. Once he thawed out, he would be fine. Well, after healing he'd be fine; but he would heal," he assured her.
A breath of relief escaped her, and she nodded. "Thanks, Sebastian."
He nodded. "Go. Go see if that's your husband."
Chuck grinned and then took her arm. "Yeah, let's go see if that's Hotch."
XXXXX
Get your ass up, Hotchner. You've taken a long enough break. You need to see if you can climb out of this damn room. He took a deep breath and rolled over onto his stomach. Wincing, he pushed himself up onto his knees and then got to his feet.
He ran his hands over his face and winced again as his fingers brushed the swollen cut on his forehead. He sighed. I'll be lucky if I get out of here in one piece. He checked his shoulders and smiled when he saw that they were both mostly healed, but his smile left him as he took a step and his back reminded him that he was still very wounded.
He cringed as he tried to twist and see what damage the triterrortops's horn had done, but it was too low and too far out of his field of vision. He took a deep breath and let his hand gingerly go over the jagged hole. He knew it had torn through the skin and muscle, but he was worried about his internal organs. It was too low to have hit his kidney, but he wasn't sure about his intestine.
As he thought about it, he frowned. Although, I guess, it wouldn't matter if he damaged them or not because I don't think I even use them anymore except when I eat human food, and I know I haven't done that in a while. He wiped his bloody hand off on his pants and took a deep breath. It doesn't feel too bad. He twisted his torso a little more and winced. Well, not extremely bad anyway.
He shook his head and then his eyes drifted to the monster still stuck to the wall. As his eyes roamed over the log that had killed the beast, he winced again. A shiver went down his spine because he knew that the spikes that saved him could have also killed him. He sighed. What's done is done, Hotchner. There's nothing you can do about it, so you might as well move on.
He walked over to the chute and looked up it. He could just make out the lighter passageway above, and he studied the chute. Can I even climb it now that it's bigger? He thought he might be able to if he could brace his back on one side and his feet on the other, but he wasn't sure how he was going to get into it to even try it.
The chute wasn't that far off the ground, but not being able to use the full range of his arms due to the shackles made it more difficult. After staring at it for a few more minutes, he thought he could make out a joint in the stones large enough for him to grab, and he was pretty sure he could reach it.
He kicked the rocks out from under his feet and then bent his knees. He took a deep breath and prepared to jump. He didn't get a chance, though, as the ground below him suddenly wasn't there, and he screamed as he fell because he definitely wasn't expecting that to happen.
He wasn't sure how far he fell, but he slammed into the ground in a crumbled heap. The pain that came with the impact would have caused him to scream even louder, but the air had been knocked from his lungs. Not only were stars flashing in front of his eyes, but the increasing tunnel vision signaled he was going to pass out as his eyes frantically tried to figure out where he was.
When his eyes finally landed on something small rushing up to him, he panicked for a second thinking it was another monster, but then he frowned. Lenny? And the darkness closed in on him.
XXXXX
Kahlan's eyes roamed over the doors as she walked passed them. Most of them had a small, barred window in them, but the rooms were dark. She was torn. Having been locked up herself, she wanted to open every door and release whatever was behind them as quickly as she could, but she wanted her husband more.
When they got to the metal door, she hesitated, so Chuck reached out and grabbed the handle. It took some pulling as the door was almost frozen shut, but he finally opened it as far as it could go.
The condensation in the air immediately turned to fog from the artic air escaping the freezer, and neither one of them could see into it well enough to determine what was in it. Taking a deep breath, she went into it. She still couldn't make anything out really, and she cussed under her breath.
Chuck found a light switch and flipped it causing Kahlan to flinch and jump back as something was hanging right in front of her face. When she realized it was a body hanging upside down, she almost lost the contents of her stomach as bile rose up her throat.
Chuck saw it, too, and he pushed her out of the way as he moved to the front of it on quick feet.
Hearing his sigh of relief, she let out the breath she'd been holding.
"It's not him. I don't even know what it is, but I don't think it's whole," Chuck uttered as he ran a hand through his hair as his face showed his disgust.
Kahlan swallowed, took a deep breath, and then moved further into the large freezer. As her eyes roamed over everything in there, her stomach turned again, and her hands tightened into fists. "This is beyond fucking sick!" she exclaimed. The walls were lined with metal shelves and they were almost full. She wasn't sure what most of the items were, but some of them were obviously arms and legs. One shelf even had several heads on it.
"Jesus Christ," uttered from the door, made her turn and she cringed as Rossi shook his head. He moved to her side. "I've seen some disturbing freezers in my day, but I think this one is by far the worst."
She nodded. "Yeah, but where's. . ."
"Here!" Chuck yelled as he bent over and pulled up the end of a tarp to reveal the soles of two dress shoes.
Kahlan and Rossi rushed to him as he tugged at the tarp at the other end of the mound. It was partially frozen to it, and it started to rip, but he got enough of it off for them to see the face beneath it.
Her eyes slid shut as she turned into Rossi's shoulder, and he put a paternal hand around her.
Chuck lowered the tarp back down as he sighed. "I'm so sorry, Kay."
She wiped her face as she pulled away from Rossi. "We need to get him out of here."
Chuck nodded.
"Is it him?" Sebastian asked as he joined them in the freezer.
"No, it's not Aaron," Kahlan told him and left.
Sebastian watched her leave and then looked at Rossi. "Are you sure, David? Flesh can be very distorted when frozen."
Rossi nodded. "We're sure. He's got dark hair, but that's as far as the similarities go," Rossi told him as he gestured to the man under the tarp.
Sebastian moved the tarp and then nodded. Even if the man's features weren't completely clear, the freckles all over his face didn't belong to Hotch. He sighed and then looked at Rossi. "While I'm glad Aaron's not frozen solid like this poor man, I was really hoping it was him. I can't imagine how you all are feeling."
When something crashed in the hallway behind them, Rossi cringed. "Yeah. She's barely holding it together."
Chuck huffed as he moved past him. "I sure hope you have Christian watching and protecting that asshole, Brian."
Sebastian moved to follow him, but Rossi pointed to the frozen man. "What about him?"
The vampire nodded. "We'll save him, too, but let us go make sure Kahlan is alright first."
Rossi took a deep breath and followed him out. We struck out today, but I swear we will find you, Aaron. I swear on James's grave.
