A Chase of Prey (A Shade of Vampire #11)(25)

Aurelio scowled. Wetting his lower lip, he walked to the door and opened it. A tall, dark-haired man entered the room. He looked almost identical to Aurelio. They're twins.

Camilo’s brown eyes settled on me as he strode into the room, a cap in his hand, shades in the other.

“So this is her?” he said, still in Spanish. Once he’d finished eyeing me over, he turned on his brother. “I want her to join me. She will help to tame that freak you gave us.”

A rush of relief spread through me. So Caleb is still alive.

“Find another way to tame him,” Aurelio said. “She stays here.”

Camilo shook his head. “Then your gift will have been worthless. It’s going to be too much of a time investment without her. What is it you want her for so much anyway?”

Aurelio frowned at his brother. “It should be obvious what she can bring me. A teenage North American. Unassuming. Pleasant to look at. You know we’ve been running low on recruiters for months. If enough time is put into her training, I predict she’ll double the Colombians’ results within a week.”

Camilo reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. Lighting up, he drew in deeply and blew out, still eyeing me unashamedly. He looked me over as if I was an object.

“Then if you keep her, how am I to use the man? He’s wilder than any animal we’ve brought in and doesn’t respond to punishment. You may as well have him back, or just get rid of him altogether.”

“You haven’t given it long enough. Starve him for a few days, if you have to. But we keep the girl here.”

Although Camilo looked frustrated, he didn’t argue with his brother. I got the feeling that Aurelio always won in arguments, even though they were twins. It seemed that Camilo had a certain sense of how far to push his brother. He stared at me as he finished his cigarette.

“Well, we’re leaving at dawn,” he said stiffly to his brother and turned to leave the room.

My heart palpitating, I lurched forward and gripped Camilo’s arm. “Please,” I said. “Please, take me with you. I want to join the circus. I’ll do anything.”

Camilo looked down at me, then back at his brother. His lips parted, but then closed again beneath his brother’s steely gaze. He cleared his throat, shook me off him and left the room, shutting the door sharply behind him. I stood frozen in my spot, horror filling me as his footsteps disappeared down the corridor.

Aurelio walked back over to his desk and picked up the phone. “Send up Jorge and Marisa.”

Marisa and Jorge—a short, thickset man—entered the room three minutes later. Marisa’s face set into a deep scowl as soon as she laid eyes on me. As for Jorge, he walked up to me and gripped my arms while Aurelio removed the handcuffs. I tried to knee Jorge in the groin, but he twisted me round fast so that my back was facing his chest, his arm round my neck choking me.

“Careful not to bruise her any more,” Aurelio said sternly as we left his office. “She needs to look clean. Like a tourist.”

As soon as we were outside, Marisa tugged on Jorge’s arm, pulling him to a stop, and with her wide palm slapped me across my face. My eyes watered from the pain.

Jorge scowled. “Didn’t you hear what Aurelio just said? You’re going to get both of us into trouble.”

Marisa’s eyes bored into mine. “I know how to punish without causing bruises.”

They stopped with me before we reached the first staircase. My stomach clenched as the man’s cracked lips brushed against mine while he tied a rag around my eyes. His hands took a detour around my body as he wrestled me to the ground and fastened my hands and legs with ropes.

“I still think she would have been good as one of Eleni’s girls,” he muttered as he lifted me off the ground. “But this suits me.”

Jorge hurled me over his shoulder. He began hurrying down the staircase, each bump bringing me closer to throwing up. A part of me hoped that I did, because it was the only way I could retaliate now that I was bound.

We’d been walking for what felt like ten minutes when keys clinked against metal, then a heavy door swung open. Jorge lowered me off his shoulder and placed me on the ground. A car door clicked open and he picked me up again. Laying me down horizontally on a row of seats, he slammed the door shut again. Jorge and Marisa took seats in front of me and the engine started. I almost rolled off the seat as the vehicle lurched forward.

I lost count of how much time passed by. I was barely paying attention to the conversation any more as my mind fixed on Caleb. He was somewhere aboard Camilo’s ship. Likely still in that armored truck, where he would spend his final breath, alone in the dark. Tears welled in my eyes.

The vehicle slowed to a stop and the front doors opened again as Marisa and Jorge stepped out. Jorge reached for me and pulled me out. A cool breeze touched my skin as the car doors slammed shut. I heard the sound of ocean waves and the distant humming of a generator.

Gravel crunched beneath Jorge and Marisa’s feet. I heard keys, then the drawing of a heavy bolt. It was suddenly hot and stuffy. Gone was the cool night breeze. The stench of perfumes clashing in the air invaded my nostrils.

Jorge carried me up yet more stairs, and finally I felt a hard bed beneath me. The sheets smelled of strong detergent. Jorge loosened my blindfold as Marisa closed the door.

I looked around. The room was hardly bigger than the basement room I’d first been trapped in with Brody. There was a small dressing table in the corner, a stool, a sink, and a cracked mirror. There was only one door—the door we had entered through. Which meant there was no bathroom. Marisa and Jorge began untying my wrists and ankles. As I shook the ropes away from me, Marisa pulled out a gun from her belt, holding it on me.