Still the loss of the other two was a minor irritant, one that he would have to see to. The sooner the better, the unseen knife was the one that stabbed you in the back in the end. He knew that one of those men had been William. He knew it down to his unbeating heart. Why had an Elder taken such a young pup with her to the city? These were questions that he had to have his new guest answer.
“Susan, you have done well, I assume that the information gathered has been taken care of?”
“Yes, Instructor, the search parameters have been deleted off of all the hard drives and back up data bases and the scant information that had been compiled when we arrived has also been deleted.”
“Very good, you may go Susan, have a good day today, you’ve earned it.”
The girl couldn’t hide the pride and joy from her voice. “Thank you, Instructor, I will.”
She turned and left quietly out the front door. He watched her go with a bounce in her step as her wavy blond hair bounced off her shoulders and shoulder blades, springy from her joy and natural volume of the strands. When she was gone, he turned back toward the idiot.
“What have I told you about your language and grammar, Joshua?”
The man on the floor visibly tensed. “Instructor, I…I don’t know…I…I’m sorry.”
Kenneth stood there, still as death, his voice flat and emotionless. “No, Joshua sorry isn’t good enough this time.”
Kenneth walked over to him. Suddenly the man found himself standing bolt upright with Kenneth’s hands gripped around his shirt collar. “Do you have the slightest idea how easy it would be for me to kill you, slave?”
Joshua’s eyes were wide with terror and all he could do was shake his head. All Joshua knew was the sound of air rushing past his head. He had no time to think about why air was rushing past his head because his back erupted in pain as a loud crack split the silence of the large house. His legs were pressed against a wall as he was folded over backward on the stair banister. Joshua felt very queasy all of a sudden, as if he was going to throw up. He felt his feet dangling in space and his hands reached for his face. He coughed suddenly and violently which sent his body into a spasm and he crumpled to floor. He reached for his mouth and has hand came away red with blood.
He couldn’t move much, the pain that wracked his body was almost too much to endure, he would much rather just go to sleep. His eyes were closing to allow the blackness of sleep to blot out the pain when he was yanked back to the real world.
“Now, you moron, you listen to me,” Kenneth said quite calmly. “I have no idea if you will ever recover from this but if you do, you had better come back speaking some language, any language, properly. At this point I don’t care if you learn Japanese, but you will speak to me as if you are educated, not some red neck hick that Cassandra picked up off the lot of a Porn film.”
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He increased pressure on the man’s neck till he was sure just a single additional PSI would break it. The bleary-eyed man was barely able to nod his head. Kenneth dropped his slave to the ground. He pulled a phone from his pocket and keyed a number into it. “Yes Michael, Joshua needs to go to the healing house. Come inside and pick him up, will you?”
He keyed off the phone and walked away, leaving the bleeding man on the floor. Kenneth made his way downstairs. The basement of the house was one of his true prides. He had built a lot of it himself. He had dug out the basement slowly, with the help of a few contractors who he had subverted. They were made to be gracious and then promptly made to forget once the work was over. The basement was filled with supporting walls and was bigger than the floor plan of the house overhead. He had specially made cells installed that would hold in just about anything he could possibly want to hold, even werewolves if need be.
He walked through the maze of supporting walls and cells till he found the one in the back which now housed his most “honored” guest. “Hello Ansuya. How are you adjusting?”
The female Elder affected an air of nonchalance in the cramped cell. Her clothes had been damaged in the fight and now shreds of fabric were hanging off her frame, revealing the deep brown skin underneath. She had tied her thick black hair behind her head with some of the torn fabric and she appeared unperturbed, full of self-assurance, and calm. That would soon change. The Elder looked up at him; her voice rang off the cold walls. “I am adjusting very well, Kenneth, thank you.”
“I see you understand your position and your situation.” Kenneth turned his back on the cell. “What exactly did you hope to find there in that database? Why even try, you knew so little about me.”
There was silence from the cell behind him. He smiled to himself, “You’ve obviously no idea who I am, and no idea what I am capable of, so let me just say that you will answer me…” He turned back around to face her, “One way or another.”
Ansuya closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “You’ve had wolves here…recently. Why?”
He laughed deeply and hollowly for a moment. He stopped abruptly and regarded her with a venomous glint in his eyes. “Look at me Ansuya.”
The Elder’s eyes drifted up to meet the Vampire’s. “Can’t you see how useless and painful it is to resist me? We don’t have to fight. YOU, don’t have to fight anymore. Here you can relax and be safe. Your fight is over.”
His voice was hauntingly melodic and the Elder’s shoulders relaxed a fraction of an inch. “Just relax, Ansuya. Feel the weight of responsibility disappear as you relax. There is nothing for you to do, nowhere for you to be. Let your mind and body relax even deeper.”
The Elder arched a single eyebrow at the vampire, “I can never relax, being near such a dangerous parasite. The stench of death that surrounds all your kind is enough to make my skin crawl.”
Kenneth smiled down at his captive, “Yes, I guess being immortal and ten times as powerful as any human would have its necessary downsides.” Kenneth stared deeply into her brown eyes; in the dim light they were almost black. “What were you doing at that archive, Ansuya?”
The beautiful woman simply looked at him, her dark eyes shone and her brown skin was the shade of deep mocha. Even in torn clothes she had a look of regality and she carried an air of assurance about her. She remained silent.
Kenneth continued to look into her eyes. The deep wells of solid brown seemed to go forever. There was a wisdom there that belied her young appearance. Knowledge was hidden in those beautiful eyes, knowledge that he wanted.
He drew her into his eyes, while daring to look deeper into hers. He could see stars and whole galaxies there in her eyes and he drew upon his own vampiric powers to draw her deeply into his. There were no words, and time disappeared. Kenneth had never looked into eyes so deep before and he guessed that she never had either. He drew her deeper into his eyes as he crafted his will and power to envelop them.