Justine Ch. 02

What she really needed she decided was to get to a coffee shop or one of those internet cafes where she could do some research on what she was and to find places that sold fresh blood. The other thing that she had to do was get to the bank, since it was dark enough to go out by five and the banks were open by six she would do that tomorrow evening. For tonight she would lie low and continue to make plans.

She put the lid back on the container of blood and set it aside to reach for one of the steaks. It was half eaten when she heard sounds coming from above her. She lay the steak on the paper that it had come wrapped in and stood up listening to the sounds above her.

She sprung into action when she heard a female scream and the laughter of several male voices. It didn't occur to her to stay where she was; she didn't like abuse of any kind and felt that all abusers both male and female should be whipped by those they abused.

She opened the basement door, slipped out and made her way toward the sounds of the screams. She hurried when she heard the sound of ripping fabric.

"Please don't hurt me!" the voiced pleaded but to no avail.

"Please don't!" one of the male voices mimicked as the others laughed.

"Leave her alone." Justine said softly but with authority.

At first no one seemed to have heard her so she repeated the command.

"I said, leave her alone!"

The men looked at her surprised that she was even there. Then one of the men, the leader spoke.

"Well looky here." he drawled as he looked Justine up and down.

The woman on the dirty floor was temporarily forgotten as the men looked at Justine who hadn't moved or spoken since she issued her last command.

"Definitely more than a mouthful." one of them said as he openly gazed at Justine's chest but she didn't respond.

The leader told two of the men to watch the woman on the floor while the remaining four including him advanced on Justine.

"What are you doing here?" he asked attempting to put Justine off guard.

Justine stayed rooted to her spot and let the men come to her. She heard the sound of a switchblade being opened but didn't react and didn't speak until they were two feet away from her.

"I would leave if I were you." she said softly.

"Or what?' the leader said.

"Or I'll kick your asses." Justine replied in a nonchalant tone of voice.

The leader looked at his men and started to laugh.

"You're going to..... You're going to kick our asses chica? Did you not notice how many of us there are?"

"I counted six." Justine replied.

"And you're going to kick our asses? You're a very funny lady." the leader said and made a grab for her.

Justine was ready and sidestepped him laughing as he went flying by her. The three other men charged her at the same time and were perplexed when they didn't catch her. Quickly tiring of the game Justine stopped moving and confronted the men.

"Last chance to leave unhurt." she said.

Later when it was all over with and she had time to think, Justine would again question her knowledge.

Two of the men attacked at one time but ended up on the floor and she hadn't even touched them. She was as perplexed by it as they were becoming distracted enough that she didn't sense the man behind her.

The man grabbed Justine around her waist trapping her arms by her side.

"So whose going to get their ass kicked?" he asked as he kissed her neck and ground against her.

Justine stomped on the arch of the man's foot and with a strength that she didn't know she had, she freed her arms and threw him against a wall. The men holding the woman were long gone as this had become more than a simple robbery and fuck. That still left four of them, the other two were back on their feet and glaring at her furious that she had managed to get in what they thought was the first punch. Suddenly Justine stopped and looked at the leader.

"Take your goons and get out of here."

She didn't know what was going to happen but was shocked when he listened and left with the remaining four members of his group. A few minutes later Justine and the woman were alone. She waited for a few minutes to make sure that the men weren't coming back before going to the woman.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you! Thank you for helping me!"

Justine helped the woman up and turned her back as the woman tried to fix her clothes,

"You live far from here?" Justine asked.

"Not too far." the woman replied, "I was on my way home from work when they took me."

"Wait here." Justine said.

As much as she wanted to stay inside she couldn't let the woman walk home alone, the men might still be out there.

When she got to the basement she swore, while she had been upstairs helping the woman the animals had gotten into her food. All that was left was the wrappers that the meat had been in and the containers that had held the blood. She picked up her backpack, looked at pile of trash that had contained her meal and went up the stairs to find the woman gone.

"Well fuck me over!" Justine mumbled. It didn't matter, she still needed to move to another location and she had to buy more food too. Cautiously Justine stepped out of the house and onto the street and headed back toward China Town hoping that the market would still be open.

********

Pam woke up to find that she was still restrained but naked. Malcolm was sitting at the foot of the bed reading what looked to be a brief.

"Oh good, you're finally awake." Malcolm said with a smile, "did you rest well?"

Pam glared at him. She felt like crap, her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton balls and she wanted a shower but she sure as hell wasn't going to ask Malcolm for one.

"I'm sure that you feel.... Hung-over and that is my fault and I do apologize, I allowed my mind to wander as you were feeding and I let you take too much."

"Let me go home." Pam said quietly.

"I can't do that." Malcolm replied with false regret.

"Why not? Why are you doing this?"

"I'll tell you what." Malcolm said, "How about you take a nice hot bath and we'll talk."

"I don't want a bath; I want to know what you're going to do with me."

"As you wish." Malcolm replied still smiling.

Pam stared at Malcolm as he told her what the plans for her were.

"You sold me? You turned me into a vampire so that you could sell me?"

"That's the gist of it." Malcolm replied. "But Pam, let me tell you how fortunate you are. The vampire who purchased you is a very gentle vampire... as long as you give yourself to him willingly."

"Give myself? You ....."

"I mean exactly what I said." Malcolm said anticipating her question, "but he is very particular about some things and well, I get to train you in those things."

"What if I don't give myself freely? What if I make him kill me?"

"That always is a possibility but you're forgetting something, you are now immortal. You will only die if he chooses it and I am told that he can be merciless if he isn't pleased as I have told you.

"Do you even understand how contradictory that is?"

"I do understand but as I've said, do as you are expected to do and you will be fine." Malcolm assured her.

"And this training? What is it?"

"Training of the most enjoyable kind if you allow it to be." he replied with a smile.

Understanding dawned and Pam began to struggle against her binds as Malcolm watched with amusement. He wasn't concerned about her going anywhere. He went back to reading the brief that he held in his hand as he waited for her to wear herself out.

When she finally stopped struggling Malcolm put the papers down.

"Are you ready to continue our conversation?" he asked.

"Where was Justine?" Pam thought as she looked at Malcolm, "Is she looking for me?" the thought that Justine would be looking for her gave her a ray of hope that wasn't missed by Malcolm.

"Are you thinking about your friend Justine?" he asked still smiling, "Perhaps you think that she is coming for you so let me inform you now that she isn't."

"Yes she is! She'll ....."

"She's dead." Malcolm said smugly.

"You killed her?" Pam whispered as tears formed in her eyes.

"No but I wish that I had." he replied, "She died because unlike you, she had no one to teach her how to survive as a vampire."

"Justine is smart! She would have found a way!" Pam protested but the seed of doubt had already been planted.

"Yes, I will concede that she is very resourceful but this is beyond her realm of experience and I have a witness who saw her die."

Pam started to cry as Malcolm's words hit her and he went in for the kill.

"You have a decision to make." he said as he moved closer to her, "You can either comply like a good girl or your ass will be tossed out on the street where you won't last a night. Decide."

Pam's heart pounded and her mind raced as she tried to decide if Malcolm was lying to her and if he wasn't what her options were. Deep in her heart she knew that he was lying but her fear and panic overrode what she knew to be true "But what if I'm wrong?" she asked herself. Malcolm was right, she wouldn't survive a night out on her own, and she wouldn't even know where to begin.

"Decide." Malcolm repeated the good humor that he had previously shown now gone and replaced by impatience.

*********

Justine found another place to hide without too much difficulty. She decided not to go back to the Chinese market; she had decided that the congealed blood was no big loss but the steaks.... She stopped at a grocery store and bought several containers of chicken and beef livers because of the liquid blood and four of the thickest steaks that she could find. After paying for her purchases she stopped at the ATM located in the front of the store and took out the maximum amount of cash which 500.00. She had forgotten that her bank didn't have Sunday hours and she wanted as much cash as she could get her hands on.

She tucked the cash into the front pocket of her sweatpants and headed back to her new hiding place. This place hadn't been vacant for nearly as long and actually had a mattress in the basement that she dragged to a corner of the room. Once back in her home for the night, Justine opened one of the containers of beef liver. She sniffed at the contents and took a tentative taste. Deciding that it was worlds better than the congealed blood she drank the cold liquid moaning as it hit her stomach.

Afraid that the rest of the blood in the other containers would congeal, she drank those as well and then combined the pieces of meat into as few containers as possible. She topped off the blood by eating one of the steaks and then offering the bone to a stray dog that had sat hungrily watching her. As an after thought she gave the dog several pieces of the meat which he practically inhaled without chewing.

After her meal, Justine stretched out on the mattress using her backpack as a pillow and began to plan for the next night. The first thing she decided was that she needed to find out more about what she was, that was important if she was going to be able to find and help Pam. She also needed to find a more secure place to hide and she couldn't use her real name and she had to use her credit cards as little as possible. "I've got to take all of my money out of the bank." she muttered not feeling comfortable with carrying around more than twenty-thousand dollars.

She was also going to spend the next night at a hotel, the cheaper the better and one that would take cash without asking questions. She wanted a hot shower although much to her surprise she didn't smell at all bringing home again that she had to find out more about herself. As she closed her eyes she wondered what had happened to the woman that she rescued earlier and hoped that she had gotten home safely. As sleep overtook her the dog, a mutt of indiscernible color crept closer to her and lay at the end of the mattress and fell asleep.

*******

Mikhail leaned back in his chair after talking with Jeremiah Mathers. He hadn't hunted a newborn in over four-hundred years and wondered what it was about this one that had Jeremiah so spooked even though he tried to hide it. That in and of itself was cause for concern as Jeremiah wasn't easily spooked but there was something that Jeremiah wasn't telling him. It really didn't matter; he had hunted others with much less information than he had just been given.

He had to admit that he was impressed that the newborn had not only figured out that she needed blood to survive but found an alternative source and had managed to go under the radar. That made her either very lucky or something else which was yet to be determined. He was honest enough to admit that this hunt unsettled him but he pushed the unease aside when he remembered the easy 2 mil that he would be making for capturing the woman and taking her to Jeremiah.

"She must really be something for Jeremiah to fork over that much money." he thought as he stood to get ready for his trip to Philadelphia. He went to his weapons closet and took a little of everything as he had no idea of what he was up against. He packed his clothing next, he didn't pack much, "I'll be back home by Tuesday" he thought as he debated on his wardrobe.

He threw in two changes of clothes and took a dark gray with blue pinstriped Armani suit, a light gray dress shirt that brought out the gray of his eyes and blue tie. Finally packed, Mikhail his New York pent house for the penthouse in Philadelphia provided for his use by Jeremiah.

*******

Justine tossed and turned disturbing the dog at her feet. Suddenly her eyes flew open and she sat straight up looking around. The dog let out a low growl as it looked toward the front of the basement and moved closer to Justine as if to protect her.

Justine knew.

Someone or something was coming for her.