The human spoke to Jude. “You aren’t even a little concerned that there are people here claiming to be vampires?”
Jude tilted her head. “As I’m also one…No.”
The woman cursed as Sam’s whip slashed along her jaw.
“I believe you were asked a question.” Sam’s voice became even raspier whenever she was pissed. It sent a shudder through me every time.
Jude tutted. “I’d answer their questions if I were you. The worst I can do is kill you, but these guys…I have a feeling they have powers that will shock the shit out of you.”
“Powers,” the woman whispered.
I turned to Sam. “Show her.”
Sam let her whip fade away, sucked more energy into her palms, and released it as a blast of air that had debris whooshing around and the tree branches swaying. Taking more energy, she directed a flame of fire at the human, which stopped just short of her body. The human, sniffling and sobbing, then watched open-mouthed as Sam shaped the energy into a silvery-blue energy ball, which she bounced from hand to hand.
“Amazing, isn’t she,” I said to the human. “I remember the first day I met her, she kicked my ass using that gift – taunted me the entire time, even called me a pretty girl. Now, if you haven’t yet figured out that it’s in your best interests to tell us what we want to know—”
“I didn’t steal any babies!”
“Yes, we overheard you admitting that your role ends at drugging the mothers. So the question is…what happens next? It’s more than obvious that the woman who offered to give Jude a ride to the hospital was involved. So where do we find her?” The human’s attention had drifted to Sam – most likely because she had her energy whip back in hand. “I said, where do we find her?”
“I don’t know—” She yelped at the feel of Sam’s whip on her cheek.
“Wrong answer.” If she had been anyone else, the scent of her blood in the air would have made my mouth water. But I couldn’t think of anything more disgusting than feeding from someone as callous as this woman in front of me. “Come on, you must have a name at the very least.”
“I’ve never met or spoken to her, I swear! I saw her from afar a few times when she drove away with a pregnant woman, sure, but that’s all.”
“What does she look like?” I knew that I could get this information from Jude, but I wanted to find out if the human was lying.
“Her hair was light blonde, but you could tell it wasn’t her natural hair colour, because her roots were very dark. She had to be in her forties. She wore glasses.”
I looked at Jude, who nodded.
“I swear that’s all I know. Leon tells me when and where to go Scouting. When I find someone, I drug them and call him. As far as I know, he then contacts the Deliverer and she takes it from there. He’s only ever referred to her as that, but he might know her name, I don’t know.”
“The Deliverer?”
“That’s what they call her and the other women who do that job. They take a kid with them on purpose to try to seem non-threatening and trustworthy.”
“This is a big operation if there’s more than just one Deliverer.” And didn’t that just worry the crap out of me.
“Yes, but I don’t know how big, and I don’t know more than what I’ve told you. I’m too low down in the chain to be trusted with details.”
“She’ll be telling the truth about that,” interrupted Chico. “In big crime organisations, they don’t tell their employees any more than they have to know. They’re going to be extremely careful if, on top of that, they have the huge secret of being vampires to keep.”
I had to agree with that theory. “Then it’s safe to say that the person we need to speak to next…is her partner.” I turned to Butch, whose eyes were boring into the human. “Check her purse for some I.D.”
After some rummaging around, Butch pulled out the human’s driver’s licence. “Janine Peterson. Her address is right here.”
“Good. I guess…you’re no longer of any use to us, Janine.”
Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “No, please, I told you everything I know, I—”
Sam sneered at her. “You hadn’t honestly thought you’d be allowed to go on your merry way, had you?”
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked in a low voice.
“Well, that’s all up to Jude.” I turned to the brunette behind me. “Sam will be more than happy to have her way with this bitch if you don’t want the honour. It’s up to you.”
Jude straightened her shoulders. “No. I need to do this.”
Sam let out a petulant whine. “But I had something so good in mind.”
Smiling, I draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her aside. “Next time.” I looked back at Jude. “Once you’re done, you’re coming with us.”
“To her place to see her boyfriend?”
“No. If this organisation is as big as it seems and vampires are involved, we need to speak with Antonio first.” At her blank look, I elaborated, “The Grand High Master.”
Nodding, she rose to her feet and went to squat before Janine, her knife back in hand.
Janine began to sob, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if the tears were false. “I didn’t steal her, Jude, it wasn’t me—”
“No, but if you hadn’t drugged me that day, I wouldn’t have been taken to have my abdomen ripped open, I wouldn’t have nearly died, I would never have been Turned into a vampire, and – most importantly – my baby would be with me, her mom, where she should be. What’s more, others wouldn’t have suffered the same fate. So the way I see it is…you’ve had this coming for a long time.” With that, Jude sliced open Janine’s throat. She didn’t move an inch from where she sat until Janine’s heartbeat had come to a complete stop.
Note to self: Never piss off Jude.
(Sam)
No less than twenty minutes later, we were back in the conference room. Antonio, Luther, and Sebastian had looked equal measures of concerned, enraged, and sympathetic as Jude told her story.
When she was done, Antonio sighed. “Unfortunately, vampires are just as involved in trafficking as humans are. In the case of vampires, they provide others with human adults and human children to be used as vessels or consorts. It’s been going on for a long time, and I’ve been sending my squads to end these operations for years.”
“Well, now there’s a new type of trafficking, and it’s a well-organised crime syndicate.” Jude leaned forward in her seat. “Foetal abduction isn’t so new for humans – this has been happening in countries like Columbia for years.”
“For years?” repeated Sebastian, stunned and disgusted.
Jude nodded. “There’s a high demand for children, particularly newborns. Countries where it used to be fairly easy to adopt from now have a lot of restrictions. Adoption’s a lengthy process, and they’ll seem like a life-time to those who are desperate for a child. Abducting newborns from hospitals is much more difficult now that the places are more secure and people are more alert and aware.
“In the case of vampires, adoption isn’t an option. Kidnapping children isn’t an option as something so bold can draw attention to the existence of vampires – no vampire would risk that. But buying a child provides little risk for them. Just as they longed to be parents as humans, they long for the same thing as vampires. The crime organisation that has specialised in trafficking has leaped on this. I suppose you could call it a niche in the market.”
Sebastian shook his head sadly. “But…why would they do that knowing that they couldn’t grow old with the child?”
“They most likely plan to Turn the child once they reach a mature age,” said Antonio.