The Billionaire’s Baby(42)

"The prison. You'll be in a different cell from your friend, but besides you two there's only one other person right now. For now, you will be safe from daylight." George waved his hand brusquely, as though he didn’t want to worry about such details as keeping a vampire safe.

Ellis nodded absently, quickly trying to formulate an escape. He was strong enough to break metal bars in the cell. That would be no problem. He just had to make sure George wasn't around. He was a wily guy, Ellis was sure of that much, and with Nia forcing him to be extra careful he had to make sure that everything was executed properly.

"You need to tell me exactly how the sun affects you." The General said abruptly, turning to look at Ellis as his hand gracefully landed on his hip.

Ellis blinked once then crossed his arm, one eyebrow lifting, "We burn. Everyone knows that."

George was an inch away from Ellis's face in less than an instant, "I’m not a fool. If you don't tell me I'll just leave you out in the sun for a couple hours to test that hypothesis." The words he spoke were so cold that a chill ran up Ellis's spine.

He smirked at Ellis's glare, "Your price for my healing the girl is to aid us in our experimentation. We're quite aware that the sun's effects are different on each vampire, but we don't know the range of effects or why they're different. You will help us. Willingly."

The dark haired vampire opened his mouth to argue, eyes blazing in anger.

What George said was true, the sun did have slightly varying effects on vampires, however that effect was a vampire's most vulnerable weakness – if anyone knew the effect the sun had the vampire could be manipulated and controlled. And killed much more easily.

It would not be good if any enemy of Ellis's gained this information.

George interrupted Ellis's wandering thoughts after smirking at him one more time, "I'll give you a bit of time to think it over, but we can't allow you to see exactly where the prison is located."

"Wha-" Ellis started to say, before suddenly, with annoying familiarity, everything went black.

Long after Ellis was thrown roughly onto a hard, dusty floor, he was able to finally find his way back to consciousness once more, instantly yelling sleepy obscenities at George, who wasn't even in the area anymore.

At first the vampire's vision was strangely fuzzy, and he was unable to make anything out, however a familiar red across the room caught his attention.

The vampire instantly threw himself blindly forwards towards her, coming into swift contact with something hard and cold, leaving him pin wheeling backwards with an agitated groan, falling back once more onto the ground.

He gripped his head with a whining cry, glaring darkly in front of him at thick metal bars which kept him confined into a cramped space barely large enough for him to lie down in.

"Calm down, your friend's fine." A stranger's gruff voice called out in the darkness to him.

Ellis attacked the metal again in the direction of the voice, blindly assuming the voice belonged to one of the soldiers that had kidnapped them.

"She's pretty lucky, they weren't sure what size dose to give to such a little person. They thought she was a kid. Been out since they dragged her in here though,"

Ellis's blood ran suddenly cold, "Dose?"

"They drug all the prisoners who come in here. Easy to control."

"I'm awake, old man." Ellis's eyes swiftly located the man talking.

He was a burly sized, middle aged man with thinned out salt and pepper colored hair, sitting hunched in the corner of a cell next to Ellis. It was his cell that separated Ellis and Nia's. Those three chambers made up the tiny little jail they were trapped in.

"They didn't know how much to give a vampire either. So they had to guess. Takes away your strength." The man shrugged, not seeming to be at all concerned with the fact that a coldblooded legend of a vampire was only inches away.

Ellis paced silently at the side of his cell, eyes drifting from the man to the redheaded girl lying prone on the cell floor several feet away. Her hair was almost completely unbraided, the little blue ribbon just barely clinging into the curls of her hair which hid her face from his view.

"How long have you been here, oldie?" Ellis asked in a quietly accusatory tone, moving in dejection to sit beside him, the metal bars separating the pair of men, "How do you know so much?"

"Years. They talk about their little experiments all the time, and they've codenamed you 'Batboy'. It was easy to figure out." A smile almost ghosted the old man’s aged face.

Ellis gave a halfhearted laugh that was more of a grunt, nodding, "Ah. So, what do you do for fun over here?"

The man just closed his eyes, crossing his arms over his broad chest and leaning back against the stone prison wall.