Page 100 of Inhuman Nature

DJ glared as he put on the first cuff, following the instruction to thread the other through the iron railing before fastening it to his free wrist. This time, he looped them through one railing and not several. He hoped Lawrence wouldn’t notice.

When Lawrence lifted the man into his arms and started walking from the room, DJ couldn’t help but speak up. “Where are you taking him?”

“If you must know, they’ll be stored down in the basement. I believe you saw it.”

DJ’s mind flashed to the desolate, dark basement. He shivered. “But I’m staying here?”

“I mean, if you’d rather be down there…” Lawrence said with a quirk of a pale brow.

“I’m good here.” DJ shuffled on the bed, planting himself more firmly, as if that might dissuade Lawrence from changing his mind.

“Thought so.”

Lawrence left and returned to the house a dozen more times that night, right into the wee hours of the morning. DJ heard each of the new vampires being recreated after Lawrence had gorged himself on their blood. The chain between the cuffs was long enough that he could cover his ears, but it didn’t dampen the sounds the way he wanted.

DJ was stuck listening to Lawrence take the life of person after person, unable to stop him. Once Lawrence was done with them, he took them to the basement, beyond DJ’s hearing. There was no sign of them after that.

DJ shuddered at the prospect of being put in a basement with the other vampires. He supposed he now knew why Lawrence had been collecting the cuffs and ropes—to keep the creations from escaping.

DJ could tell when dawn was upon them. For one, Lawrence stayed inside the house, and for another, there was this odd new feeling inside of DJ. It made him think about when he and his mum had gone to visit his grandparents in Jamaica, and how discombobulated he’d been with the combination of the long flight and time difference. His body hadkept waking him up at the time he would have usually have got up for school, only to discover that it was the middle of the night. He’d lie awake in the darkness on the lumpy mattress, the strange rhythmic whistle of tree frogs outside his only companion.

Being awake now felt like that. Like he was out of time, out of place. Like he was the only person who existed in the world. As if everyone else had just up and left, and here he was, alone. Panic clawed at his insides as he tried to free himself from the cuffs again, the sharp clang of metal drilling right into his head.

“Stop that.”

DJ looked up, seeing Lawrence at the open door. Some instinctual part of DJ tried to move towards him, seeking comfort from his creator. His gut twisted at the thought of receiving anything of the sort from a monster like Lawrence. As quickly as he’d leaned forward, he flinched back.

“Relax, boy. It’s just the sun coming up. Your body is telling you it’s time to sleep.”

Shaun hadn’t seemed to struggle so much when he’d been awake during the day. DJ said as much to Lawrence, who leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms.

“Shaun is far too human for his own good—always resisting the urge to hide from the sun. How unnatural,” Lawrence sneered. “It seems you, however, are more accepting of your nature.”

“I’m not,” DJ protested, even as he felt himself slipping into darkness.

“Embrace your nature and maybe I’ll keep you around after all.”

“You won’t be here to try.”

Lawrence pushed off the doorframe. “Have a goodday, DJ. Sleep well.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Shaun

“This is ridiculous.”

It wasn’t the first time Shaun had heard Rake express such a sentiment. It was, perhaps, the fourth.

They were waiting for Lynette to show her face. Before they’d arrived at the club, she’d gone to fetch a recovering Julia from her home, fearing that Lawrence might go after her again.

Shaun, Rake and Kit had been unofficially confined to the main room of the closed dungeon whilst some of Lynette’s creations milled around, cleaning and doing maintenance jobs.

“They have no sense of urgency!” Rake raged. “Why are we just sitting around here? We should go after Lawrence and get DJ back ourselves.”

“We can’t do that without Lynette’s say-so,” Shaun said, though he agreed with Rake. “She told us to wait. If we defy her will, she could banish us.”

“Then we get banished,” Rake said. He flopped back on the sofa, Shaun shuffling beside him where they sat with a view of the entire room.