Sharkbait Down Under
Prisoner Transport

Vicki Lawrence’s POV

The van ride sucked; my body ached from being stuffed into the cage, but I dare not shift enough to contact the silver lining the top. Hard bumps in the road would jolt us, and we would touch the silver anyway. We bit back the screams. Our guards promised to sedate us if we didn’t keep quiet, and we’d rather be awake for this.

I could hear a small plane taking off as we drove along a paved road and knew we were at an airport. The sound changed, along with the sound of an electric motor moving the door. “We’re in a hangar,” I whispered. The van came to a stop, and ten minutes later, the back doors opened.

I blinked a few times as I adjusted to the light. We were in a private airfield hangar, near where a twin-turboprop aircraft sat. It was the size of a small commuter aircraft, capable of moving a dozen people around while landing at smaller airfields. “Can you fly that,” Amy whispered?

“I’ll fly a jumbo jet if it gets us out of here,” I whispered back. “I need a chance.” With silver collars on our necks and multiple vampires around, that chance wasn’t coming easily. Vampires were a challenge for experienced werewolf warriors; their speed, fangs, and venom-carrying claws made one-one-one a losing fight for us. We would need at least three-on-one to have a chance, and right now, it was six-on-four IF we could get free.

One of our guards came forward, pulling Noelani’s cage forward. “We’re going to let you go to the bathroom one at a time, and then we’ll get you loaded on the plane. If you resist in any way, we’ll stuff you in the cage and put you underneath with the cargo. Hopefully, you won’t freeze to death before we get to Mexico City.”

“We will cooperate,” I told him. Now wasn’t the time to fight.

The guard set Noelani’s cage onto the concrete floor, and a guard unlocked the silver-coated padlock. She stood up and stepped out, moving stiffly. Another guard fixed shackles around her legs and cuffed her hands in front of her. They shuffled her to a bathroom, and she came out wearing an orange prisoner jumpsuit. The guard escorted her up the stairs to the plane as her twin went to the bathroom. I was the last one to go; when I got on board, the other five were in place on the seats. The guard pushed me into an open seat next to Amy before connecting a chain to both sets of shackles. The chain went to an eye bolt under the seat, attached to the airframe; I wasn’t going anywhere.

The vampire pilot climbed up and closed the hatch, leaving only the two guards in the cabin with us. The better odds didn’t matter, as we were held securely and silvered to prevent shifting. I looked out the small window as we pulled out of the hangar and onto the runway. The sign said, “Aeroclub Baca.” Based on the sun and the open ocean to our north, we were on the Yucatan Peninsula’s northern edge.

As we lifted off the runway, I felt our best chance at freedom slipping away. The vampires had left us no good options, and the police didn’t stop us at the airport. Mexico City was a big city, with a Master Vampire over it and the entire region. They could hide us anywhere and keep us as long as we were useful to them. The guards ignored us, so we quietly talked as we flew west towards our prison. Noelani turned around in her seat. “Why does the Vampire Master want us?”

I looked at her. “Virgin Beta daughters.” I looked up at where Carla and Fiona sat. “Warriors.” To my right to Amy. “Beta.” Then to myself. “Mantled Alpha. What did Master Alexander want? Werewolf blood,” I said. “Drinking our blood makes them more powerful. Master Emily and Master Pontalba each wanted my blood to fend off challengers.”

Amy thought about it for a moment. “Why all of us? Why not just you, since your blood is the strongest?”

It was a good question. “Remember what the vampire said when they took us from the hideout?”

“He talked about Master Emily being weak because she used you to kill Master Alexander and called Master Cyprian old and senile.”

I nodded. “If the minions think that way, the Master does too. What do Emily and Cyprian have in common?”

She thought for a minute. “She used your blood to fend off challenges, and Cyprian didn't stop it.”

“Exactly. Think about it from an outside perspective. For over a century, holding and harvesting of werewolf blood has been against the law. The Vampire-Werewolf Treaty makes it a capital offense to capture and hold us. Yet, here we are, captured and held. Why?”

Makani came up with the answer first. “The Master doesn’t respect the authority of the Supreme Vampire anymore; once he allowed a challenge using werewolf blood, the rules changed. If Cyprian permits the use of werewolf blood, why can’t he use it?”

She was close. “That would explain taking me, as I supplied the blood to both Emily and Alexander. One could almost make a case that I am a voluntary source now. With my blood, he’s stronger than Master Cyprian while keeping the Supreme Vampire from using it. It doesn’t explain taking six of us, though.”

No one spoke for a few minutes until Amy’s head came up. “The Master Vampire in Mexico City isn’t planning to challenge Master Pontalba for his spot. He’s building an army to take it by force.”

“And he’s going to harvest our blood to make that army invulnerable,” I agreed. The thought of being used in a plot to overthrow my friends made my stomach roll. I fought back my nausea, but it was a losing battle. “I need a barf bag,” I announced loudly. I could see one in the seatback in front of me, but with my hands shackled, I couldn’t reach it.

“Help her. I don’t want to smell vomit the rest of the trip,” one of the guards said. The other got up from his seat, opening the bag just in time to catch the first wave. There wasn’t a lot to come out since we hadn’t eaten since yesterday, but my body tried anyway. When I finished dry heaving, he opened a water bottle for me. I rinsed my mouth and spat it back into the bag, thanking him as he rolled the bag closed and put it in the trash container.

“Are you all right?” Amy looked concerned as I leaned back and closed my eyes.

“This isn’t my first kidnapping. I think my body is reacting to the idea of being locked up again.” I was quiet for a bit, letting my stomach settle again. “What do you think is happening out there?”

“Our families are going nuts,” I said.

“I almost feel sorry for the Master Vampire. The whole world is going to line up against him,” Amy said as she looked out the window.

I wasn’t so sure. “The Vampires stayed alive by staying in the background, plotting, and planning. The Vampire Master wouldn’t take us unless he knew he could get away with it. That meant he was casting the blame on someone else. It could be Supreme Vampire Cyprian, or it could be the Council.”

“The negotiations when the vampires arrived made it look like slave trading,” Amy said. “Blaming it on humans is the safest play.”

“I just hope our families see through it to figure out who took us, or we’re dead,” Makani said.

“As long as they can harvest our blood, we have value to them,” I replied. “Don’t do anything stupid to get yourself killed. We have to survive until our rescue.” I had to believe a rescue was coming, for my sanity and to hold my Pack together. Without hope, we were no more than a blood bank.

To pass the time, I started talking about our last Cenote dive. Quiet discussions about the dive and the shots we could use for our show took our minds off our predicament, and I was glad the guards were ignoring us. When we descended for landing, I felt better about things.

We landed at Aeropuerto de Atizapán, which was on the northwest side of the Mexico City area from what I could see out the window. We taxied to a spot far from the buildings, and I smiled as I saw a Mexican Police cruiser approach along with a gray unmarked van.

I should have known better. Two officers got out and took up positions on either side of the ramp, as the guards inside the plane put on prison guard hats and windbreakers. One at a time, guards walked us off the plane and locked our shackles to welded steel rings in the prisoner transport van. To anyone looking, it was a prisoner transfer. No one got close enough to figure out the car was a fake, and the guards were all vampires.

Before we left, the guards put black hoods over our heads. Our sight was gone and our noses didn’t help, as the smell of the city was overwhelming. Mexico City’s pollution, overcrowding, and thin air made it uncomfortable for us. It was colder than I expected. “We’ve got to be over a mile up,” Amy said as she focused on her breathing.

“Probably closer to eight thousand feet,” I said. “We’ll get used to it.” We drove for over an hour through the city until the van stopped and turned off. When the doors opened, guards took us across a large interior space and down a stairway. When the hood came off, I was standing in a musty-smelling room with no doors or windows, hewn out of solid stone. A set of bars filled the opening, and I could sense the silver coating on them.

“Welcome home,” the vampire guard said as he took my shackles off. The others were already free, lined up by the bunk beds, as guards with cattle prods watched them. “Rules are simple. Do what you are told, without hesitation, and keep the cell clean. If you resist or attempt to escape, punishment will swiftly follow. Your meal will be here soon, so make your beds and settle in.” He walked away, and I could hear a gate slide shut, then a deadbolt on the door at the top of the stairway.

“Well, this is cozy,” I said as I looked around. There were bunks along the back wall in two stacks of three, each with sheets and blanket folded up by the pillow. To the right, behind dividers, were the toilet, sink, and shower. The partitions were only shoulder-height, and the front was open to the cameras I could see in the top corners of the cell and outside. On the other side of the door was a small picnic-type table with two benches bolted to the floor.

“It’s like camp,” Amy said with a smile.

“We better make our beds before they get back,” I said. “I have a feeling things could be a lot worse.”

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