Page 43 of Resurrecting His Soul
Honestly, Melina had expected that deep-seated anger to result in Lisandra’s death the moment he got her alone. Truly, the man was the epitome of evil. She was shocked to see he wanted to keep her alive—subservient to him, and sure he planned to torture her and her human friend, but still, he seemed to want her alive.
When her phone began to ring again, she considered running straight to the ranch and killing him herself. That would be one way to earn her some good credit with Ricardo, at least, and maybe he’d allow her to live. Only, it would also lead to Lisandra and Allison surviving, and she would rather die than allow Lisandra to have what was meant to be hers.
When she didn’t answer, her phone quickly lit up again, making it clear that Jameson was intent on showing her he was the boss and she found herself hoping Ricardo would kill him first so she could watch. After she sent him to voicemail for the third time, she turned the phone off completely, and slipped it back in her pocket just before Ricardo walked back into the room, her blood cleaned from his face.
“It’s time to go,” he deadpanned. And she knew there was no getting away. She was going to take him to the ranch where Jameson held Allison and Lisandra, and if she was lucky, she’d get to see him break at the sight of their dead bodies before he took her life.
****
Ricardo
Something was up, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He’d been listening when he left the room, but the only sound he’d heard was a quiet vibration. Whatever Melina had done, he knew he had to get to Lisandra and Allison fast or he had a feeling Jameson would have them moved, or worse, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he was too late to save them. The longer Jameson had Lisandra and Allison, the more likely he would not get them away alive. There was no telling what kind of hell he’d already put them through. If Allison was still alive, it would be a miracle. On top of being an evil bastard, Jameson was also a new vampire, and not one with the desire to treat humans as equals instead of food like Lisandra. No, he imagined Allison was in the most trouble around him, and if Jameson did anything to hurt or were to kill Allison, Lisandra would stop fighting him to survive. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He didn’t know what Melina’s plan was, but he would make sure not to let her out of his sight.
****
Melina
The ranch where she’d set Jameson up wasn’t incredibly far from Ricardo’s place, but she wanted to be careful. If she escaped him once he was distracted by finding Lisandra dead, she wanted to make sure he couldn’t follow her trail, so she spent over an hour running in circles and changing directions until she nearly got lost. Okay, that wasn’t true, but someone who didn’t know the area the way she did would have gotten lost. Ricardo stayed right on her tail the whole time. The funny thing was, had Ricardo ever taken the time to get to know her, he would have known about her family’s ranch, and might have found Lisandra and Allison sooner, and saved their lives.
Had he ever asked, or just paid attention to all the times Melina shared memories from her past, then he would have known that Melina’s family had an old ranch about thirty miles from his own home. It had not been lived in for a few years before she became a vampire. After her grandfather died, her parents had not had any use for the ranch. They preferred the city, but her mother was sentimental and refused to put the place up for sale, instead leaving it abandoned. It had worked out for Melina when she decided to seek out Lisandra’s ex and bring him into the picture. She needed a place to hide him, and since Ricardo had never really listened to her, he would have no idea where to find them. Too bad it had also turned into a camp for Lisandra and her weak ass human friend. If Jameson didn’t kill them before she got there with Ricardo, she was going to kill him herself.
ChapterTwenty-Eight
Lisandra
Jerking awake, Lisandra groaned when something hard and rough dug into her wrists. She was getting sick of being knocked out with whatever drug they were using that was powerful enough to take down a vampire. Pain was shooting through her arms, and her wrists were bound. When Jameson said he had somewhere to keep Allison and her, she had not imagined she would wake up chained to the rafters of what appeared to be a dilapidated meat shed. It was dark, nothing but an occasional sliver of moonlight peeked in through the cracks between the splintered boards that were somehow still holding the old building up on all fours. Rusty chains hung from the rafters every few feet. Some with large hooks attached where she imagined freshly prepared slabs of meat once hung. The chains holding her arms above her head, tied together just beneath the rafters, were so rusted they had become overly jagged, and there was blood dripping down her arms where the heavily encrusted rust had bitten into her flesh time and again. Every time she moved they took another bite of her flesh. Her feet were not touching the ground. Looking down, there appeared to be two feet from the bottom of her feet to the dirt and old, rotting hay that made up the ground floor of the shack. Her whole body was on fire from hanging, especially her arms twisting above her head. It took a while for her body to feel any kind of strain, so she must have been hanging there for hours, or days.
Even in the darkness, she could see every detail of the room, all the way down to the areas of wood that were rotted in the planks that ran horizontally across the ceiling. Unfortunately, Jameson had been smart enough to chain her to the one plank that was in surprisingly good shape. Taking a closer look, Lisandra was fairly certain it had been replaced, and not long ago, judging by the strength of the wood, and the fresh cedar scent she could still smell coming from just above her. The one thing, or person, she wanted to see was nowhere in sight.
“Allison?” she whispered, loud enough she hoped her friend could hear.
She heard someone clear their throat behind her. “I’m here,” Allison said. Her voice was cracked, and Lisandra was certain she heard pain in her voice.
That was when the other scent in the room hit her. She had been so out of it at first she had not noticed, but it was suddenly trying to consume her. A fire began inside her, sending a flaming inferno down her throat. Her thirst was giving her new strength while the scent of fresh, human blood overwhelmed her. With her hands turned awkwardly, she managed to wrap her hands around the chains that held her captive, then she flexed her torso and pulled her legs up with enough torque to reach the plank above her hands. She wrapped her legs around the solid plank, then used her body and legs to yank down hard. The plank never stood a chance. It snapped like a brittle twig on a dying rose bush, and the chains wrapped around her wrists slid down the broken plank, her body falling with them. Her hyper vigilant reflexes kicked in and she kicked her legs out just in time to land on her feet, her body instinctively going into an offensive crouch, ready to tackle her prey.
She yanked her arms apart, snapping the rusted chains, and sent pieces of them flying off on either side of her. The force enhanced the wounds on her arms, and more of her blood dripped from her wrists and smeared the dirt and hay at her feet. Her own blood did not concern her. Hell, it wasn’t even on her radar in that moment. The only thing she cared about, the only thing that held any of her attention right then was the blood running down Allison’s arms, who was chained to a plank in the ceiling at the back of the shed, just like she had been.
Allison must have noticed the change in her because she smelled the fear spike in the air. It was a very distinctive scent that made the part of her that was a predator stand high on its haunches, rejoicing in the reaction it had pulled out of its prey. She took one step forward, but stopped when Allison’s scent changed again, the fear overpowered by something else.
Allison glared at her. “You are not this weak, Lisandra. Pull your head out of your ass. Wasn’t it you who convinced Ricardo’s ancient ass that you could fight the urge to feed you’re feeling right now? Be the woman I know you are.”
Ricardo.His name sent pain straight through her chest into her un-beating heart where it had been dwelling since they’d been forced away from his home. If she had talked to Ricardo, opened up about Jameson sooner, been more adamant about Melina being evil, she knew he would have kept them safe no matter the cost. Hell, he would have gotten rid of Melina and Jameson permanently if he wasn’t trying to make her happy and prove he could go without killing. She had been stupid and naïve. He had tried to tell her that the vampire world was different. That she would have to learn a new way of living, of surviving, but she was set on continuing life under the human world’s rules, and that had landed Allison and her in a meat shack with her newly changed vampire ex who was likely planning a horrible death for the two of them.
She straightened up and the relief on Allison’s face was immediate.
“Woo,” Allison said. “I was a little worried that wasn’t going to work.”
Lisandra smiled. Only Allison could turn something so frightening on its ass. She made a show of sniffing the air. “Even with your inferior human senses, you should be aware of how awful you smell right now.” She pinched her nose between her fingers. “Seriously, Allison, you smell like a sack of horse manure.”
“Ha ha,” Allison rolled her eyes. “You’re not fooling anyone. Besides, I smell like a perfectly seasoned porterhouse steak with a side of loaded potatoes, and you know it.”
They both laughed, but Allison winced and tugged at the chains binding her to the rafters, and Lisandra focused back on getting them the hell out of there.
“I need you to stay as still as you can,” Lisandra said.
Allison shifted again and her face contorted. “Easier said than done. This hurts like hell. I don’t think I can pull that ninja shit you did to get down from here. How about some help?”
“I’m going to get you down, but I need you to stay as still as you can while I do it. Every time you move, the chains cut deeper into your wrists, which is bad for you in more than one way.”
