"Wait your turn, Natural," Hector growled and pushed her aside.
"No!" She pushed him back and shook the blanket in front of the rogue vamp. "What happened? Did someone bite him?"
The vamp glared at her.
Furious at the thought they'd been using her brother as food, Ashley dropped the blanket and whipped out her knife. She stabbed the vamp in the thigh.
He jerked and hissed in pain.
"Where is my brother?" she demanded and withdrew the knife.
He didn't answer, and she stabbed him again.
"Your brother is not the mission," Hector shoved her aside once more. He lifted a Taser. "Charles won't ask why I had to use it."
Ashley yanked her knife out of the vamp's leg and fumed silently off to the side. She soon began to pity the captured vamp. Hector Tasered, beat and twisted his arms into pretzels. She flinched as she watched, willing the stupid vamp to just answer the questions about what was down in the basement.
"Kitchen!" gasped the vamp finally.
She perked up, and Hector eased back. "What's in the kitchen?" he demanded.
"Go … see …"
"I'll go." Ashley volunteered. "You can keep doing … this."
Hector nodded, and she left quickly, relieved to be away. She had no love for vamps, but she didn't like to see anyone suffering either. Ashley scoured the bunker and found the kitchen accessible through an entertainment room with a television and couch. She crossed through to the space the vamp indicated and looked around.
The counters were empty. She searched the cupboards. They, too, contained nothing. Suspecting he had tricked them, she started to leave when she heard the sounds of shouting and foot traffic. Several vamps raced by the entrance to the entertainment room. They weren't Charles' vamps, though, and she began to suspect Charles had gotten in over his head upstairs. She waited for them to continue down the hallway and started forward but stopped and turned suddenly.
She hadn't thought to check the fridge.
Ashley retreated to the corner where the refrigerator was and opened the door. Two boxes - one a shoebox, the other the size of a large ring box - sat on the top shelf. She reached in and grabbed both quickly to set on the counter. Not at all certain what vamps kept in the fridge, she lifted the top off the shoebox first.
"Oh … yuck." They'd severed someone's hand and placed it in the center with a folded dishtowel beneath. She replaced the lid with a grimace and opened the ring box.
The eyeball staring back at her was the exact same hue as hers.