A/N: Sorry about this chapter being short. I'm very tired and need to catch up on my sleep. For everyone clamoring for Jori, don't despair. It will come in time. Introductions are everything and I have the perfect buildup. A lot of your guesses for where she figured into the story were amusingly creative but no one has nailed it yet. Stay tuned.
Jade was feeling weak. She was on foot from the crime scene because she lacked the strength to do anything else. She felt her body give up and collapse against a brick wall. It felt like she felt when she was near death.
A drowning sensation overcame her just like before. Her vision started to blur just like before.
But something different happened this time.
"Hello, Jade" the deep voice reverberates around her.
Who the fuck are you?
"Welcome"
Where the fuck am I?
Jade came to lying on a metal slab like an operating table. She was strapped down with metal bands. She struggled but they were solid steel. A large man with chiseled features stares down at her. He looked like a statue and was probably just as big. Another person would think of him as handsome. Jade was just irritated.
"What's going on? Who are you?"
The big man smiles a shit-eating grin. "Lyriz. No need to introduce yourself. We all know who you are."
We?
Jade turned her head to the side and saw a mass of people looking at her with jubilation oozing from their eyes.
"This," Lyriz said. "Is my family."
Oh shit.
The sheer number of people didn't make Jade uneasy as much as their stark silence. She figured out what was going on. They were waiting for orders.
"What do you people want?"
"Have you ever wondered about your current state? Why do vampires even exist?"
Jade just stares at him, watering the garden of her anger.
"See, we are stronger, faster and less vulnerable than humans. Why? It's because we are evolving as a species. The world likes to think that our kind are abominations but we've only evolved to the next level. Nature of course tries to rebel against any species that has the danger of becoming masters of the world. Since nature thrives on the sun's light, heat and energy it tries to get rid of us by making the sun deadly to us. Just a desperate attempt to control our population."
Lyriz begins walking around the metal table, Jade just staring at the ceiling in contempt.
"But we're resilient. We have endured and despite being ushered into the shadows, our numbers have grown. My clan here has exceeded two hundred. Others wander this world as lost souls but we have it all figured out. The hunger, the uncontrollable desire to eat humans, has a broader purpose. It is symbolic. Like Christ offering his body and blood to his followers to establish a new church. Fate is telling us that we are the new ideal and to prove it we must literally consume the old society: humans."
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT WITH ME?!" Jade's screams echoed throughout the room.
"Calm down. You'll need whatever strength you can hold on to. See our research has followed the lineage of the original vampire and it leads all the way up to you. You, Jade, are a direct descendant of the strain to begin all strains."
Lyriz places his hand on Jade's shoulder.
"I had a vision years ago warning us that if the last of the original bloodline were to be turned, it would spell doom for our mission. So our plan was to have our friends in organized crime protect you from harm to avoid such a scenario."
"Didn't work, asshole."
Lyriz cocked his head in agreement. "Yeah."
"Still doesn't explain just what the hell you want with me…"
Jade focuses on Lyriz when he approaches a control panel and touches a red button. She suddenly feels a painful stabbing to her abdomen. The red, red blood flows from her through hoses into clear containers.
"This is such a great invention, is it not? It keeps you alive by pumping blood into your system and it is rigged on a timer so that before you get a fraction of your strength back, it drains you critically. And then it starts all over again."
"Why?" Jade was beyond furious with being tied down and all the mysterious talk.
"We originally figured you a great risk to our kind. But a happy accident occurred. We analyzed a sample of your blood from our connections to the police. It was…unusual. So we tried some experiments and found that even though you don't feel any different than the rest of us, your body strengthens whatever blood was in your veins."
He leans in closer to his prisoner.
"You're like a filter only in reverse. You somehow make blood more potent. It revitalizes the weak faster, it lasts longer." He frowns at Jade's blank expression. "I thought you would be proud to know how much you would be helping the cause."
"Fuck you and your cause." Jade grinding her teeth. "Now let me go before I rip each and every one of you apart."
"No."
Lyriz moves around the table and prepares to leave.
"You're going to be here for a very long time, Jade West. A long time. Pity. Had we known sooner, we probably would have spared your sister."
Images of Mira and how horrible she looked when Jade discovered her flooded her mind. A single tear formed and ran its course down her cheek.
"You know, even while your sister was drowning in her own blood," Lyriz sneered "She was still crying for you."
Jade rises as far as her shackles will allow. Her captors gets concerned when one of the arm restraints looked like it was getting loose. One of them immediately pushed the red button and Jade slips out of consciousness.