Page 27 of Inhuman Natures #1
Shaun avoided taking one last look when he went out the door.
Instead, he focused on his destination, running towards the club.
At that speed, it was hard to keep an eye out for Lawrence, but it would have been almost impossible for his creator to find him when he was moving so fast. He just had to hope that Lawrence wasn’t lying in wait for him.
It wasn’t long before Shaun got to the club. He ran straight through the door and up the stairs to Lynette’s private area without stopping, the vampire on bouncer duty taking chase .
Shaun paused, allowing him to catch up. Instead of asking for his membership credentials, however, the bouncer bodied him right into the wall.
Shaun grunted in pain, surprise stealing his words.
“You made a mistake coming here,” the bouncer growled, pulling Shaun to his feet by his throat and pressing him against the brick.
Shaun scrabbled at his hands, trying in vain to dislodge them. “What are you talking about?” he croaked.
The big bouncer didn’t deign to respond to him.
“Mistress!” the bouncer shouted, loud enough that anyone in the vicinity with supernatural hearing wouldn’t miss it.
The grip he had on Shaun’s neck was too tight for him to break free of, no matter how much he tried to push off the wall.
He ended up with his feet dangling in the air when the bouncer shifted him up the wall so they were nose to nose.
Even though Shaun didn’t need to breathe, the sensation of being choked had him panicking. He lashed out, but it was like kicking a mountain: pathetic and ineffectual.
Relief filled Shaun when he saw Lynette and a couple of other vampires appear at the bouncer’s side. Until, that was, he saw her expression.
Anger didn’t cover it. It was rage, loathing and disgust all mixed into a look that Shaun believed could kill. He stopped fighting against the bouncer’s hold and went limp, knowing from experience when submission might grant him the smallest of favours.
“Take him through, Boris,” Lynette said.
Shaun expected to be thrown over a shoulder, but Boris and another of Lynette’s ever-present creations grabbed an arm each and frogmarched him instead. They moved so fast that his feet fell out from under him, his toes dragging against the ground.
When they deposited him in a room that resembled the fake dungeons that existed downstairs, he thought for a second that they’d brought him to one of the private play rooms. He was disabused of that notion, however, when he more closely examined an authentic-looking medieval torture implement and figured it might be the genuine article.
“I think you’ve got me confused with somebody else,” he started to explain, but Lynette strode in and advanced on him.
“Your creator told us,” she said.
Shaun shook his head. “What? I—”
Lynette was in front of him before he knew it, a hand fisted in his sweatshirt. “He told us what you did to Julia.”
Shaun stared blankly at Lynette for a second, before realising that Julia had to be the woman Lawrence had taken.
Lynette’s voice broke ever-so-slightly as she continued, betraying her emotions. “How dare you set foot in this place? She almost died.”
“He was the one who did it, not me!” Shaun exclaimed.
“I didn’t just take his word for it. I visited Julia in the hospital, where I smelled your blood and scent all over her. Did you forget that I’ve tasted you before, Shaun? I recognised your blood from a mile away.”
Shaun raised his hands. “That doesn’t prove I attacked her!”
“You’re right,” Lynette admitted, fangs out and teeth bared in a snarl. “That doesn’t prove it alone. But Weston showed her a picture of you. She recognised your face from her attack. ”
Shaun was stunned into silence. His mind raced, trying to understand how Lawrence had convinced Lynette with such ease that he was the one behind it all.
“I’m not feral, and I would never try to drain a human,” Shaun said, trying to keep calm. “Lawrence brought her to the house. He tried to compel me to kill her!”
“Well, there’s just another lie,” Lynette said. “Creators can only compel their creations for the first few years when you’re more volatile.”
Shaun frowned. “But—”
Lynette pushed him, sending him flying into the wall.
His back cracked as something broke. He lay on the floor where he fell, unmoving, as his body tried to heal whatever had just snapped.
Lynette’s creations didn’t give him a chance, picking him up and dragging him back over to Lynette as he tried not to react to the pain.
At least his time with Lawrence had taught him how to stay quiet when all you wanted to do was scream.
“You will face judgement for attacking my human,” Lynette said.
Shaun was too focused on not passing out to form a response. He would have been on the floor if it wasn’t for the other vampires keeping him upright.
“Julia was going to be my next creation. Thanks to you, she’s now terrified of our kind.
I let you and your Master come here to my city, and you repay me by breaking our laws?
I wasn’t ready to reveal myself to her and now you’ve forced me to do so!
” She finished with a vicious slap to Shaun’s face that left him reeling.
“Fuck,” she swore. “I’m not usually this kind of vampire.
But you have betrayed me in the most heinous of ways. ”
One of her creations mumbled something about the punishment being justified. But Shaun now understood why Lynette had believed Lawrence. She cared for Julia in the same way that Shaun cared for Rake and DJ. No doubt Lynette wasn’t able to think rationally when it came to Julia.
But now, with Shaun here, Rake and DJ were the ones vulnerable to Lawrence. He had to reason with her. “Please,” he said. “Please, you have to believe me when I say that Lawrence is dangerous.”
“I saw the evidence of your attack around Weston’s neck. You could have killed him.”
“It was in self-defence. He’d been torturing me for days!” Years, if he was more accurate. But if she wouldn’t believe him about the situation now, there was no chance she’d believe that either.
Lynette laughed mirthlessly. “Part of me wishes to deal with you right now. But I won’t pass sentence until you’ve received your due,” she said. “You will remain here and imagine what your fate may be in the meantime. Lock him up.” With that, she left the room.
“You don’t have to—” Shaun’s protests were ignored as Boris dragged him over to a small metal cage in the corner of the room. Shaun made a few half-hearted attempts at a struggle, which only sent spasms of pain through his back. He worried it might be broken. Healing wouldn’t be an easy task.
Boris made short work of stuffing him into the cage. For once, Shaun was glad of his small stature. It gave him the slightest bit of free movement in the tiny space.
He could hardly believe it when Boris locked the cage, switched off the light, and left. Being alone in the dark wasn’t an unfamiliar experience for Shaun, but he hadn’t been expecting to have it happen to him here.
Shaun tried, but he couldn’t break the cage’s metal.
His weakened state was likely to blame, but perhaps a witch had spelled it.
Not that Shaun knew much about witches or their capabilities.
Lawrence had told Shaun that one had spelled some of his favourite implements to ensure they never broke when wielded at full strength, so he figured it was within their capabilities to make a cage unbreakable.
He could sense the last remnants of Rake and DJ’s blood working to heal his back. He’d assumed he’d be able to feed once he came to the club. Lynette always had humans around to drink from.
Except, of course, he was now persona non grata with the Mistress of Brighton. He doubted he’d be getting any kindness from her other than the mercy of a quick death.
When his back felt healed enough to move, he got himself into a sitting position. Still uncomfortable, but better than his prior contorted state. He sat there in the silence, spiralling further into hopelessness as he considered his current situation.
He was facing execution. Lawrence was above suspicion. Rake and DJ were in imminent danger.
Shaun had to convince Lynette of her mistake. Otherwise, Lawrence could get to Rake and DJ, and would be free to take another boy to make his own.
Familiar lethargy swept across Shaun’s body as the sun rose. But his eyes remained open and unseeing as he worried about what the next night would bring. At least in the daylight Rake and DJ would be safe.
It was more than he could say for himself.