Chapter 6

When Tyrell opened his eyes, he could sense that it was dawn. His body was sluggish and unresponsive. But he quickly came to realize there was another reason he felt drained from his power given the fact he was…in chains.

A growl erupted from his throat, causing a few scared scientists to peek into his cell. His anger was barely controllable as he could not believe he once again had been captured. But it was not the minerals this time which paralyzed him. They had injected him with some powerful drug he had never known existed. Focusing on what little strength he had left, he went inside himself, seeking to find out what formula was being used. The compounds he discovered were extremely complex, something no ordinary human could possibly have created.

Withdrawing and exhausted, he contemplated the formula. When night fell and he was stronger, he would attempt to break down the substance. In the meantime, he had other ideas he could play upon. He growled again, and sure enough, a scientist peeked into the cell.

Come to me.

Tyrell was extremely pleased to see the man open the door and walk toward him in a trance. His physical power was gone yet his mental abilities were still working. The man came closer and Tyrell ordered him to release the chains. The man had no key, and there didn't appear to be any lock. Whatever was holding his bonds had to be controlled from another room. Like the other scientist he'd encountered a few days ago, this man's mind was also blocked, hiding any information.

Another scientist walked in, looking confused. "Zack, what are you-"

Tyrell ordered Zack to attack and he was not disappointed. Zack withdrew a syringe from his lab coat pocket and threw it at his fellow scientist. The man screamed as it struck his eye. Chaos followed with more men running into the cell. But all it took was one look from Tyrell and he'd captured their minds. He forced a few of them to kill themselves, one slamming himself into an electrical panel to be electrocuted while another injected himself with every nearby syringe available. The man who had been stabbed in the eye with the needle was also now under his command, and Tyrell ordered him to attack others.

Then the lights went off.

At first, Tyrell thought it was due to the scientist who electrocuted himself. But a voice over an intercom soon told him otherwise.

"I admit, I am very impressed." It was the voice of the man who mocked Tyrell in the hallway before he lost consciousness. There was light clapping, while the man continued to speak. "Bravo, I must say, you are the best yet. But I have a few tricks up my sleeve as well."

Tyrell hissed as a toxic odor streamed into the room. It choked him, and Tyrell struggled to keep awake.

"Look at you," said the voice. "Look how strong you are. You are such a perfect specimen."

Tyrell found himself mentally weak and was unable to hold the minds of the remaining scientists. The men shook their heads, trying to come to terms with what just happened. The lights came back on and one of them looked up at a camera in the room and began to yell.

"You idiot! I told you this one was too strong!"

"Calm down," the voice answered. "I have everything under control."

"Control?" snapped the man. "Two more have now died and John is severely injured. Just kill this thing while you still can!"

"Never. He is the one we must study the most. We will discover everything we can to make sure our formulas are configured just right. What do you think will happen if ten more of him come through our lab? I, for one, want to be prepared."

The man pointed right at the camera. "Fuck you, Derrick. I want out of this. Do you hear me? Wipe my mind clean or whatever you have to do so I can get the fuck out of this place!"

There was silence for a moment. Then Tyrell watched a tall, thin man walk into the cell. The scientist who had been yelling at the camera swiftly turned to look at him.

And promptly received two bullets from a gun into his head.

As the man fell to the ground, the scientist holding the gun looked at the others. "Anyone else needing their mind wiped clean?"

Tyrell realized this was the leading scientist, Derrick. It was obvious his control of vampires had definitely stroked the man's ego. An ego Tyrell was extremely eager to shatter.

As the other scientists moved away in fear, Derrick turned and walked right up to Tyrell. He slowly pointed the gun right at Tyrell's head. "We haven't experimented with bullets to the brain yet. You could be our first. It should be the least I could do for the mess you made."

Tyrell laughed low. "I believe you are the one responsible for such a mess."

"The sun is high, my mind is blocked, and your powers are now completely gone. I think you are just a little too confident, vampire."

"Are you sure I'm the one who has too much confidence?" mocked Tyrell.

Derrick lowered the gun. "Fine, show me. Let me see this great vampire escape."

"Your time will come," he replied with a dangerously soft voice.

"I look forward to it. In the meantime," Derrick said with a firm voice, "I can see I'm the only one who can be counted on to get anything done around here." He put the gun in the back of his pants and withdrew a scalpel from his lab coat. "I don't think this is even sterile, but I doubt it matters."

Tyrell narrowed his eyes, waiting for any opportunity he could to strike. But his strength was gone. Derrick began to cut open Tyrell's shirt and Tyrell bared his fangs. When the scalpel began to cut into Tyrell's left pectoral, he refused to even flinch. Blood trickled down his skin and Derrick smiled.

"Interesting. Blood from other vampires was like acid. Yours seems almost normal. Still pretty dark, but the flow is consistent with human blood. I'll test it later. For now, I need a few tissue samples."

The scalpel dug in deep, and Tyrell closed his eyes. He had to remain strong until nightfall.

"Ready?"

Arianna woke from a groggy sleep. They'd given her something as it was still daylight hours. "What?"

Derrick laughed. "He's ready for you. Afraid? I would be if I were you. He killed two more of us. I can only imagine what he might do to you after you've fed him."

"No…"

"You know what? I'm damn tired. So shut it and let's go."

Before she could say another word, two men came in and grabbed her. Still feeling lethargic from whatever they gave her, Arianna could barely fight them. They dragged her out of the cell and down the hall. As she approached the vampire's cell, she couldn't help but panic. He may have not shown any interest in her before, but if he was hungry now…

Arianna winced as she landed on her stomach. The cell door slammed behind her and she scrambled to back away. The light was dim and hard to see anything. Holding herself, she braced herself for something to happen.

But there was only silence.

Her heart racing, Arianna drew a deep breath and looked to the far side of the room. The vampire was shackled to the wall, his head down, as if unconscious. There was a strong scent of blood. She covered her mouth in shock when she realized his chest and shirt were covered in blood.

God, what had they done to him? He was bleeding so badly, she began to wonder if he was even alive. She heard the scientists saying they could heal themselves, but that certainly wasn't happening. Then Derrick's voice came over the intercom.

"Give him leeway on the chains."

The bonds, so tight against the wall, released with a long link of chains. The vampire fell face first to the floor and Arianna screamed. Blood now pooled onto the tiles and she waited for him to make a move to grab her.

And still nothing happened.

A curse came from Derrick. "I'm too fucking tired. Steve, you take watch and see if anything happens. If he's dead, we'll cut him up in the morning."

Arianna heard a few doors slam and then all was quiet. She wasn't sure how long she sat there, her legs pulled up to her chest while she held herself. Finally, when after a long time there was still no movement, Arianna slowly released her legs and leaned a little forward. She didn't hear any breathing. What if he was dead? But she thought vampires only died in sunlight. Then again, this vampire had tore out the heart of the other vampire, which apparently was another way to kill them.

After more time passed, she finally inched closer. His blood was different. The other vampires had blood like acid. But his just continued to slowly pool on the floor. An odd feeling came over her, like she actually began to feel sorry for him. She scolded herself as the notion was stupid. You can't feel sorry for a vampire! But something within her twisted. He was just as much of a prisoner as she was.

Gathering up her courage, Arianna crawled over to him. She grabbed his shoulders and tried rolling him over, but his weight was more than she bargained for. She bent down and used her shoulder as leverage, grunting until she managed to finally roll him on his back. What she saw made her gasp.

He had a huge hold on the left side of his chest. It was obvious Derrick had been cutting away, probably collecting tissue samples. Worse, there were various stab wounds all over him, making her realize Derrick probably took out his anger on the vampire for causing a few more deaths.

She looked at his face. With his eyes closed, he almost looked peaceful. Since the sun had been out, no doubt he tried to put himself to sleep to do what little he could to heal himself. She'd heard Derrick talking excitedly about how they seemed to be able to sleep in the ground during the day; that something in the soil appeared to help heal them.

Well, that and blood.

A sudden realization came over her. This vampire was not only different, he probably had been the only one to successfully murder a number of her captors. If she did give him her blood, maybe he could heal himself. And if she died in the process? It didn't matter to her. She'd been longing to escape or finally die for so long. She just prayed her death would be a quick one.

Arianna looked around for anything to cut herself with but there was nothing. Wait, what about his fangs? Reaching out, she lifted his lips and sure enough, his teeth looked razor sharp. Arianna drew a deep breath and then placed her other wrist against one of his fangs, before slicing herself open…

For hours, Tyrell had endured the torture of the scientist named Derrick. It soon became clear the man was not only cunning, but simply evil. After taking what he needed for his so called experiments, Derrick found great pleasure in 'testing' Tyrell for weaknesses. He first demanded that Tyrell heal himself, but when that didn't work, the scientist began to stab him repeatedly.

"You'll die if you don't give in!" Derrick had spat. "Is that what you want? To miss your opportunity to find a way to kill me later?"

Through all the pain and taunts, Tyrell remained motionless. Silently, he only continued to stare at the man until his vision finally dimmed. When he could stand it no more, Tyrell slowed his heart, hoping that when night finally came, he'd still be alive to find a way and escape the drug which overpowered him. But the blood loss he'd sustained was life threatening and he had doubts about his survival.

While his heart slowed and Derrick continued to scream at him, Tyrell had one last fleeting thought about the female he'd seen in the cell earlier. She was definitely the psychic the scientists had been using to lure vampires here. But he could not understand how they could be lured when she caused so much pain to their minds. She was actually more painful then this mad scientist. Yet those eyes…he couldn't get the sharp color of them out of his mind.

He must have lost consciousness as when he woke, Tyrell found himself flat on his back. The next sensation he felt was one of his incisors ripping at skin, and then hot, sweet blood filling his mouth. His hands were still bound by chains, but now obviously had some slack to move. In an instant, Tyrell grabbed onto the small wrist at his mouth and latched on, voraciously feeding on a taste he'd never knew existed.

A small gasp reached his ears, but it was too late for whoever this was feeding him. He knew his eyes were glowing red as the darkness within him roared to drain the human dry. In a swift movement, Tyrell released the wrist and grabbed onto a small, delicate neck. He growled deep and was on top of the human, viciously biting into that neck without a care. All he cared about was the taste…

A whimper actually made him pause. The darkness was fighting to take over, demanding that he not stop. He recognized it was a female under him. He could feel the outline of her curves and Tyrell became deeply aroused.

Take all of her, the dark voice said. Take all of her and then escape. Kill them all. Then find Carissa and kill her lifemates.

Tyrell was now shaking and he shut his eyes. He had to stop this. He focused as hard as he was able to manage, and reached out with his mind.

Carissa.

But a different female's voice spoke instead. "No…please…"

Tyrell slowly released the female he was holding. Pulling away from her, his heart began to race and a new fear took hold of him. The sight before him was the small female with deep blue eyes. Blood poured from her neck and those eyes were filled with tears. She struggled to finally speak two words:

"Kill…me."

Author's note: Thanks for the reviews. Please note I'm recovering from some minor surgery with my eyes. On one hand, I have a little more time to write, on the other hand, I get tired easily. So reading (and writing) are a struggle right now... -Anne