Read Online Enduring Service by Regina Morris - Free Book Online Page B

surprised looks of disbelief as they all took in the sight.
    “She’s not dead,” Dixon said. He bit his lip and made eye contact with Raymond. “She can’t be dead.”
    The seconds ticked on for minutes and then the van’s sliding door opened. Dixon held his breath and prayed Sulie would exit the van. The man who had pretended to be the expectant father emerged first, followed by a woman who obviously was not pregnant. The man’s scratched face bled streams of purple blood down his cheek. The woman’s torn, baggy dress and disheveled wig made her appear like a bag lady with a rat’s nest of hair. She pulled off the wig and threw it into the van as the man took some deep breaths and said something to her.
    Dixon jumped from his seat. “Hand. That’s a hand,” he exclaimed as he ran to the big screen. Ben rewound the footage and zoomed in. Over the next few seconds, the team perched in their seats as they confirmed that what Dixon saw was indeed Sulie’s hand. In the shadows of the van, they could just barely make out Sulie’s face on the floor.
    Alive. Not dust. Not dead. Alive.
    Dixon took a deep breath. He had not realized he had been holding it. He returned to his seat as the video footage continued, showing only a few scattered individuals walking through the garage paying no attention to the upheaval.
    The feed showed two men joining the original two from the van. One of the new arrivals then tied Sulie up and placed her in the back of the van. The team watched as Sulie’s unconscious body was thrown into the back like a tied up and gagged rag doll. Next, they put a medical freezer unit the second new arrival had been carrying in the back with her. All four then climbed into the van and drove out of the parking garage.
    Ben hit pause on the video.
    “Who the hell would do that to her?” Dixon asked of no one in particular.
    “Bring up the video again and zoom in on the faces,” Raymond said. As they reviewed the video, Raymond took a still shot of each face, as clear as the video could make them out. He next put the pictures through a face recognition algorithm against criminal, FBI, CIA, and the Vampire Council databases. Raymond glanced up from his computer screen and Dixon locked eyes with him. “This may take a while,” he said.
    Dixon sat perched on the edge of his seat. “She may not have very long. They could kill her.”
    Ben shook his head. “She’s still alive. If they wanted her dead, they would have killed her in that van. They took her somewhere for a reason.”
    “What about blood?” Dixon asked. “She could go for weeks without…”
    “Days,” Raymond said glumly.
    Dixon’s head turned towards his best friend. “But, Mason and Daniel keep their age as old as I am. They only feed every six weeks or so.”
    “Sulie has remained at her base age for a long time. Her body was always sated with blood. Her spleen is accustomed to processing blood as quickly as she drinks it — taking the blood from her digestive system to her circulatory system immediately without storing any of it.”
    “What does that mean?” Dixon asked.
    “She’s going to grow old fast,” Sterling answered.
    “Very fast,” Ben added.
    Dixon looked from vampire to vampire. Their grim expressions verified his darkest fears. “We need to know who these people are right now. Did a ransom note come?”
    “Not that I know of,” Sterling said.
    Ben shook his head when Dixon stared at him.
    “The clue is in who these people are and what they are doing,” Ben said, as he rewound the video feed once more. “There is something of importance in the big medical case one of the men is holding. Maybe an organ?”
    Dixon stared at the vampires on the screen. One held a medical briefcase.
    “Could be any type of tissue transportation unit.” Sterling slapped his hand on the conference room table in frustration. “Could be an organ, or a harmful bacteria to be unleashed on the human population, it could be