“Talk, Jared.”

A sigh. “Maybe tomorrow night. Now sleep. We only have one last evening to ourselves before all the guests arrive. After that, we’ve got a big week ahead with the Binding.”

If Luther’s vision was right, we had much more than a big week ahead of us. A part of me wanted to warn Jared, to talk to him about it. But doing that would risk Luther’s life, and talking in riddles wasn’t a reason to die. So I’d have to do as Antonio said…watch and wait.

(Jared)

“So you have an assignment for us.” Ordinarily, I’d be pleased. But this time, I didn’t have even an ounce of enthusiasm. After what had happened in the bungalow, the only thing I wanted was to lock Sam in a room where no one could reach her. Seeing her in pain had knocked me into a hyper vigilant state that I couldn’t snap out of, no matter how hard I tried. But the oh-so-stubborn female was insisting on going.

“Yes,” replied Antonio. “Luther had a vision. Unfortunately, it wasn’t entirely clear.”

Like that was anything new.

Luther spoke to Sam. “As I once told you, my visions do not always make much sense. Sometimes, it is the feel of the vision that I am left to rely on. What I do know is that this is something that hasn’t happened yet, but will happen very soon – in just a few hours’ time, in fact.

“In my vision, there was a park. It was the evening. There were two women; one was a vampire, one was a human. A pregnant human. I could feel that the vampire had every intention of murdering the human, who she had bound to a tree. The vampire’s rage and pain hit me hard.”

That wasn’t good. “Not to be disrespectful,” I said to Antonio, “but surely you could select another squad to deal with this.”

Antonio’s expression was apologetic. “Believe me when I say that I would have assigned this to another squad had it not been for one thing − you and Sam were in the vision. To remove you both from the equation might have a very negative impact on what happens.”

Fuck. Well now there was definitely no getting out of it. “Do you have any idea who the women are?”

Luther shook his head. “No. But when I have a vision about unfamiliar people, it means that one, or all, of the people in the vision will become important to The Hollow somehow.”

“And you think the human will be important?”

Luther sighed. “I do not know.”

I scrubbed my nape, agitated. “What is it you want us to do exactly? Obviously we can’t allow the vampire to kill the woman, but then what? Do you want us to bring one, or both, here?”

“I trust that you will know what train of action is appropriate once you decipher the situation,” said Antonio.

“If it’s only two women we’ve got to worry about, I suppose it’s not necessary to take the squad,” Sam concluded, but I shook my head.

“I’ve had plenty of experience with Luther’s unclear visions. They always seem like simple situations and turn out to be anything but.” That was another reason why going on this assignment pissed me off.

Antonio nodded in agreement with me. “I’d recommend that you take at least three of the squad with you.”

“Where will we find the two women?” I asked Luther. He handed me a sheet of paper with coordinates written on it.

“I believe it would be best if you left as soon as possible.”

So that was exactly what we did. It turned out that the place from Luther’s vision was actually a redwood forest north of San Francisco.

After hours of searching, I halted, sighing. “I can’t hear or smell anyone nearby.”

Sam stopped beside me. “Neither can I.”

“This is the only area of the woods that we haven’t covered,” said Butch, his eerily dark eyes taking in everything around us.

“Maybe we missed them.” David shrugged as he nervously ran a hand through his coppery hair. “Maybe we were too late.”

“Or too early,” suggested Chico. He said something else, but it didn’t register as my hearing had locked onto a distant moaning sound. Did you all hear that? I asked Sam and the guys. They each nodded. Be as quiet as you can – we don’t want the vampire hearing us approach. The guys stealthily followed Sam and I as we wound through the trees.

Finally, my vampire enhanced vision picked up the source of the sound in the far distance. Just as Luther had described, there was a pregnant human sitting against a thin, tall tree with her hands bound behind it. The plan had been to make the job quick – disable the vampire, save the human, and decide if either of them should be taken to The Hollow. Instead, I held up my hand, signalling for Sam and the guys to remain in position. I wasn’t sure why, but every single cell in my body told me to wait, told me to listen. Sam arched her brow questioningly. I mouthed, ‘Trust me’, glad when she shrugged and focused her attention on the spectacle ahead.

The moaning had now stopped and the human was waking. Her forehead was creased in a way that hinted at pain – probably a headache. It was a few seconds before she realised that she was in fact tied to the tree. She struggled, but it seemed that the knot was very secure. That was when sheer and utter panic took over her face.

“You can shout for help if you want,” began a voice, “but even if someone came, I wouldn’t let them help you.” A tall brunette stepped out of the shadows and stood directly before the human. Malice literally gleamed from her eyes. I could see even from here that her irises weren’t glowing. If she was that pissed off but her irises weren’t glinting red or amber, she had to be a Sventé like Sam.

“Who are you?” the human asked, her lips quivering. When the vampire didn’t answer, she rambled, “Look, whatever Leon owes you, I can get it. But if you’re mistakenly thinking – like others have before you – that if you call him he’ll rush here like lightning to save me, you’re going to be very disappointed. He’s out of town, and he hasn’t got the money to give you anyway. He spends what he steals before he even steals it, trust me.”

“So you’re the breadwinner?”

“I have to be, or we’d have nothing.”

“For someone who’s financially struggling, you’re dressed very smartly, aren’t you?” The vampire was right; the woman was clothed in a black maternity suit – jacket, pencil skirt, and a white blouse. “What’s your name?”

The human seemed taken aback by the question. “What’s yours?” she returned cockily.

The vampire’s mouth curved into a smile. “Jude. My name’s Jude.”

“If I were you, Jude, I’d let me go. I’ve told you, I can get you your money.”

“I don’t want money.”

“Well whatever you want, I can get it. But hurting me would be a really stupid thing to do on your part. You’d be upsetting my employers, for a start. You don’t know who I—”

“Yes I do.” Jude squatted down in front of her. “Maybe I don’t know your name, but I know something about you…something I doubt that many other people know…You’re a Scout.” The human’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. “You really don’t remember me, do you?”

When the human didn’t respond, Jude explained, “We met in a supermarket. We both reached for a velour baby sleep-suit at the same time. You told me that you were so sorry, massaging your pregnant belly. You said you had eight weeks left before your due date, that you were having a boy. I told you that I had four weeks left to go, that I was having a girl. Any of this jogging your memory?”

The human still didn’t speak, so Jude continued. “Just as I was walking away, I felt a sharp prick in my arm that made me flinch, but I never thought anything of it. Why would I? A few minutes later, I was suddenly dizzy. Uncoordinated. My eyelids felt like they had lead weights hanging from them. With blurred vision and shaky legs, I stumbled outside. I just kept thinking that I needed to get to my car and go to a hospital. To any non-dizzy person, driving would have seemed nothing short of suicidal. But for me, the equation had been a little different: something was wrong and my baby might be at risk, therefore I had to hurry to get to a hospital.

“Then a car pulled up and the window lowered. A woman asked me if I was okay, if I needed a ride to the hospital. I said no, but she kept insisting that I couldn’t drive in my state. I would have said no again, but then I saw a toddler in a babyseat in the back of the vehicle, clapping his hands and grinning. It made me relax, made me think I could trust this perfect stranger. So I hopped inside the car. Seconds later, I passed out.

“When I woke up, two men and a woman, all wearing scrubs, were looking down at me. I thought I must be at a hospital…And then there was the most amazing sound. Crying, my baby was crying. I tried to lift my head and see, but my body wasn’t cooperating. The only thing I saw was a mop of black curls. Then, just before I blacked out again, I heard a harsh voice order, ‘Get rid of her quickly’.”

I truly would never have anticipated that the conversation would swing in this direction. I mean, seriously…what the f**k?

“When I came round, I was in a wooded area, just like this one. It felt like warm water had been thrown over my stomach. I reached down and realised my baby bump was gone. My baby was gone. When I brought my hand up, I saw that it wasn’t water, it was blood. I don’t know how long I lay there crying before I got up. I staggered about aimlessly, fuelled mostly by shock. But I was bleeding so badly. I was dying, and I knew it. I don’t think I got far before I fell again. But, unbelievably, someone found me. I begged them to help me, and they did; they made sure I lived. They said that if anyone had the right to live and get revenge, it was me.”

I was betting this ‘someone’ had been the vampire responsible for Turning her.

“It wasn’t until about six months later that I was…healed enough to go searching for you.”

In other words, it had been six months before her bloodlust had been under a satisfactory level of control – although Sventés had a manageable bloodlust, all newborn vampires of every breed suffered from uncontrollable bloodlust. Had she been a Keja or a Pagori vampire, it would have taken her longer to control it.

“I searched and searched for you, but I don’t think I ever expected to find you, no matter how hard I tried to track you. I almost pissed my pants when I spotted you earlier. I think the woman behind me thought I was having a seizure or something.”

The human now had the look of someone who understood exactly what danger they had found themselves in. “Jude, what happened to you was…horrific. Awful. But I swear to you, I had nothing to do with it. I don’t even remember us meeting—”

“Surely you’re not suggesting I’d forget the face of—”

“No, no,” the human quickly added, clearly conscious of the danger of offending Jude. “I’m not saying we didn’t meet, just that I’m not so good with remembering faces, but I swear to you, I was nothing whatsoever to do with what happened to you.”

Jude’s crooked grin widened, but it wasn’t a pleasant one. “That would be much easier to believe if” – she dragged up the brunette’s blouse to reveal an artificial baby bump – “you were truly pregnant. What do they call these? Some antenatal classes use them, don’t they?”

“Empathy Belly Pregnancy Stimulators,” replied the human quietly.

I hadn’t been expecting that. I sensed that Sam was equally surprised. She was also extremely pissed to the point that a silvery-blue energy ball had appeared in her hand. I imagined she was probably cooking up interesting ways for the human to die.

“You weren’t pregnant when we first met either, were you?” Jude said to the human. “You’d been wearing this. It gives you an excuse to talk to pregnant women without looking suspicious. It’s just two pregnant women comparing notes. Admit it, you’re a Scout.”

“If you’re hoping I can tell you where your baby is, you’re very mistaken. My role ends at drugging the women.”

Slowly, Jude tucked her hand inside her knee-high boot and retrieved a jagged-edged knife about eight inches long. The moonlight glimmered off the steel implement. “So what you’re telling me is…you’re no good to me?”

“What I’m saying is I might have drugged you, but I didn’t perform the Caesarean, I didn’t take the baby.”

Rage flashed across Jude’s face, but somehow she remained calm. “Don’t call it a Caesarean, don’t. A Caesarean section is a medical procedure that’s used with the mother and baby’s well-being in mind. Having my abdomen ripped open and my unborn baby snatched from my womb – risking its life – wasn’t a Caesarean.” Jude seemed to be searching the human’s face for something, probably remorse. “How do you sleep at night? How many women have you done this to? Don’t you even care that innocent little babies are being taken from their mothers? For all you know, they’re being sold to paedophile rings. What is it – can’t you have kids of your own so you hate women who can? Or is it all about the money for you?”

A scorned look suddenly took shape on the human’s pale face. “Who are you to judge me? If you want to wiggle that knife in front of me and threaten me, go ahead, do it. I just hope you don’t think I can tell you where your baby is, or that you’d ever find it now anyway.”

“I don’t. I gave up hope after a little while. I didn’t want to lose faith, it just went. To tell you the truth, she’s probably better off without me. Better off not knowing that her mom’s messed up and her dad’s a r**ist. But that’s not the point, is it? She wasn’t yours or anyone else’s to take. If anyone was going to give her away, it should have been me.” Pain was etched into Jude’s face. “There would be no point in me having her back now anyway. I can’t raise her. But neither can the people who she’s been sold to, because they’re just. Like. Me.”