Chapter 4

Listening a few miles away, he realized the three men had given up their pursuit of his car.

"Finally." Edward felt a surge of relief, turning down a dirt road, off the highway.

This was a secret way to his house that he liked to use often. He could pull up to the back of the house and no one could see anything for miles around him, except trees. It was nicely far away from all human contact, isolated, just like himself.

At last, he was pulling into his garage, closing the automatic door behind him. All the lights were off and Edward kept them off, darkness was better than light right now. She would be naked when he took her out of the drum so that would spare her some unneeded humiliation. And also, she wouldn't be able to see him too clearly either.

He got out quickly, slamming his door, popping the trunk open and taking a cleansing breath. One hand of his grabbed the handle on top of the drum and pulled it out carefully with ease.

Her breathing was heavy inside, and started to speed up as he took the drum through another doorway into the basement. It didn't look like most human basements. It was completely furnished and warm, complete with a little bar area to the right.

Placing the drum down with meticulous precision, Edward pushed on the lip of the top, making the metal break there to free the lid. For humans, a crobar would be needed, but for Edward, only his finger would do it.

He looked down at the floor a moment before making himself lift the lid up. A little ball of heat rose up from inside as he tossed the lid on the floor in the corner, hearing her voice give a small whimper, fear.

"Samantha?" Edward tried to make his voice sound pleasant, "Time to come out. Slowly try to stand up."

She didn't move. Her heart was pounding wildly. He had to say something more to ease her a bit.

"I'm not going to hurt you Samantha." Edward almost whispered, hoping this would do it.

At this point in Edward's life, he was often annoyed with humans. His patience was very short and after so many years of living off the blood of wrong doers, some of their essence was left behind in him. He was a bit cold sometimes with them. He hadn't been in high school or college for 10 years now and he was losing touch with people, so he knew he didn't always behave the way he should.

He did try, especially with these girls he tried to rescue. But they didn't always just fall into his arms and scream their thanks. They saw him, too, as a bad guy, and they should. He had to play that part for the criminals so why should the girls believe him 30 minutes later when he tried to tell them he was only trying to help?

"Please come out now." Edward grinded his teeth, getting aggravated so soon in.

Still nothing.

He was mad now. "Fine" he smiled with a sarcastic grin, "Have it your way."

With one quick jerk of his hand, the drum tipped over on its side, and dumped the little naked girl onto the black carpet with a soft thud and a high pitched squeal.

A slight look of annoyance crossed his face as he took the empty drum and its lid out to the garage next door, closing it behind him as he came back in.

She crawled over to the corner of the room like a little mouse, her arms wrapped around her breasts and she trembled, burying her face in her arms too. Crying like a little child, she waited for what was about to come now.

'He's going to rape me, I know it.", he heard her thinking in horror, 'Then he'll torture me and probably kill me. Pretty things break too easily he said. Oh God, please, don't leave me."

He tried to ignore this, and went to a dresser on the far other side of the basement.

Sweatpants, t-shirt, socks, he grabbed them and went to the refrigerator behind the bar area, grabbing a bottle of spring water, frost still tingling on the glass bottle. Weeks ago, he had gone out and purchased a supply of comfortable clothes for the girls he was going to rescue.

"Samantha", Edward came back near her, but didn't get too close.

He placed the pile of clothes on the floor and said, "Get dressed."

"And here's some water for you.", he put the bottle down next to the clothes, "It's nice and cold."

Without expecting an answer, he backed away, going back over to the other end of the room, picking up the receiver of his white phone and hitting the plastic keys until he heard the ring.

"Detective Langston", a male voice answered as usual.

"This is your friend." Edward greeted with no emotion.

Edward was certainly not anyone's friend , really, especially a human, but this detective only knew Edward as "a friend". Years ago, this man had seen what Edward was, witnessing him kill a man he was trying to catch. They had an understanding and from time to time, Edward would help this one. Actually, they tended to help each other. The last few girls he had purchased would go with the detective to a safe house until Edward could bring the men down who ran this slave girl ring.

"Hello friend.", the detective's voice suddenly became serious and interested, knowing who it was. The voice was clearly that of an African American man in his 30's.

"I have another girl for you." Edward informed, taking a peek at the frail looking thing in the corner. She was quickly putting the shirt on, not making eye contact with him.

"You move fast, my friend." Detective Langston sounded worried

"I have a lot of time on my hands." Edward sighed, not wanting to talk this much in front of the girl.

"Obviously.", the voice on the other end replied, "But there's a problem."

"What's that?", Edward's voice was low and deep, sounding gloomy.

"Can't take her off your hands right now.", he said matter of factly, "My funds are zero and since I'm doing this on my own free time the department won't help us out."

"I have funds." Edward frowned. Everyone was out for money, thinking only of themselves. He was so sick of humans he would vomit if he could.

"It's not that, friend, I don't want your money.", Detective Langston sounded insulted, "But I don't have the men or house to keep her safe. Looks like she's your problem this time."

"What am I supposed to do with her?", Edward almost shouted. She had the pants on now, too, and slipped a sock onto her right foot.

"Do what every safe house does, you let her sit around and wait until it's safe. Let her watch MTV, kids love that shit." The detective sounded amused.

Sighing, Edward let this go and informed, "There may be a couple more women they told me. In a few days, I'll meet up with them again and see if I can get the rest."

"I guess I'm not going to be arresting those guys when you're done, huh?"

"You guess correctly, my friend." Edward smiled to himself, "A man's gotta eat you know."

"Okay I know.", the voice accepted this without a fight, "Let me know when you're going to them again."

"I will." Edward said curtly.

"Have fun with your new friend, too.", he gave a chuckle and hung up.

Jerk, Edward turned and hung up the receiver. He thinks it's funny that a vampire who's hungry has to entertain a young human girl for a few days in his private secluded mansion.

See next chapter

Love, WinndSinger