Chapter 9.8 - Ricardo Ricci

  As twilight was approaching and the night sky was illuminating with billions of beautiful twinkling stars, the town of Starlight Shores was quiet as the community was fast asleep and the creatures of the night were slowly making their way out of their lairs. If anyone had walked past the trees surrounding the cabin they wouldn't have noticed nights most dangerous and deadly creatures of the night, perched way up high above the cabin. Nick and Ino were completely silent, not moving an inch as they looked down upon the cabin waiting, a movement, a sound, anything. They had been staking out this place in utter silence for hours before the quiet sound of an engine grabbed their attention, followed by bright lights, illuminating the deep, pitch black forest like a dozen spotlights all turned on at once.

  Before the car came to a stop Nick and Ino snuck down closer to the ground, to get a better view of whoever stepped out of the car. Just as they had stopped moving the car door opened and out stepped....Ricardo Ricci!

Nick and Ino looked at each other in shock then quickly turned back towards Ricardo, who was making his way into the cabin.

"Wait....that was Ricardo Ricci, the mafia leader." Ino said as he and Nick began walking away "That means..."

"Her disappearance and her parents disappearance wasn't an accident, neither was the magazine cover and story," Nick said interrupting "What could he want with Lexi and her parents?"

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Lexi's P.O.V.

  I was slumped over in the corner of my cell in excruciating pain and despising my "hooker" like clothing that I was dressed in. These clothes were nothing like my short shorts and tank tops, these clothes barely covered my body and the high heels were defiantly stripper heels.

"Open the cell door, NOW!!"

  A strange man, another vampire, looking beyond pissed off came storming up to me, hatred in his eyes. He grabbed my arms, yanked me up and got to close to my face, scaring the crap out of me.

"Start talking, now! What do you know?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about!"

  He quickly pulled out a small computer and played a video that made me burst into tears immediately.

"You see this, this is what happens when you don't give me the information I want, that I know you have! If you don't start talking I will take pleasure in killing your parents."

"NO!" I screamed, crying even more "I'm telling you the truth, I don't know what you are talking about!"

  I barely finished the last word before the man hit me very hard, stripped me down to my underwear, and tossed me back to the ground.

"Matt, Tyler, get in here now!" Ricardo yelled as the two men from before came in again "Drain her blood, not all of it either! I don't want her dead, I just want her extremely weak."

"Yes Master Ricardo!" The men said with sinister smiles, my eyes widening upon learning that this was the Ricardo of the mafia.

  The two men quickly grabbed me and forced me back up. I tried to force them off of me but they were just way to strong. Without warning I felt the sharp pain of razor sharp teeth piercing into my skin. The pain was almost unbearable and as they took more of my blood I became weaker and weaker.  Just when I thought death was right around the corner the two men stopped, dropped me to the ground and watched as I passed out once again.

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Colton's P.O.V.


"We need to hurry up, Loka and Colt need us," Nick said as he hung up his phone "I don't know what is going on but Colton said it was an emergency."

  Nick and Ino ran as fast as they could back to my house before the sun rose, which would be in 10 minutes. As they ran inside the saw Loka and I sitting quietly in the living room.

"Loka, what is going on?" Ino said

"She has been like this since her vision, she wont tell me what she saw," I said urgently.

"Okay, okay," Loka finally said "I had another vision of lexi but this wasn't a good one AT ALL! Ricardo Ricci arrived and after fighting with lexi he stripped her clothes off and called in two other men. The men came in and began sinking their fangs into Lexi and they drained almost all of her blood."

"Guys, I cannot take this anymore! We NEED to get here out of that horrid place NOW! I can't wait any longer, this is ridiculous!"

"I agree," Ino said nodding "nick, with what we have learned do you think we can get in and out?"

"We should be able to teleport directly to her since Loka has seen where she is being held, but all of us need to go together. Loka we need you because of your connection to her through your visions and you Colton," Nick said looking at me "have a connection to Lexi naturally because you guys are soul mates, deeply in love."

"I could have told you that," I said with a smile "One problem though, of course I want to go with, that is a given. But what if they come after me? I'm not like you guys, they would be able to take me down in seconds."

"They wont," Nick said "We will protect you..."

"But what if they do?" I said trying to not show I was becoming irritated.

"I wont let them but if they do, take this," Nick said handing me a gun "This gun is loaded with Silver Bullets. Shoot them through their heart, anywhere else will only stun them for a moment and piss them off more."

"Now don't go shooting us," Loka said with a smile and laugh.

"Alright you guys, do what you need to do to get ready. We leave at night fall."

Chapter 9.7 - Planning

  When I finally woke up I was sore from laying on the ground, in pain, numb, and could barely move. My body was reacting (or not reacting) like I had not moved an inch in a long time! As I looked down I noticed that I was dressed...well sort of and my hair was different.

Suddenly I heard the whispers of females, three that I could tell. When I looked at them my eyes bugged out, they were stunning (even though they were vampires) and I became very jealous knowing how I looked right now compared to them. I cleared my throat to grab their attention causing them to stop and look at me with a tiny bit of worry on their faces that quickly changed to disgust.

"Who are you? How did I get dressed?"

"We dressed you and don't worry about who we are. You better start talking before Ricardo arrives tomorrow night, he is pissed off with you not cooperating." The girl with the blue hair said before they all began to walk away.

"Ricardo? WAIT, Ricardo Ricci?" I thought to myself "HEY! WAIT! How long have I been here now?!"

"4 months" The tall girl with the red hair said before adding "Bitch."

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Colton's P.O.V.

"What do you mean you are closing your investigation?!" I shouted at the police officer, boiling over with rage "This is an outrage!!"

"I'm sorry Mr Daniels but with no leads or evidence in 4 months we simply cannot go any further. We will have to add Miss Abruzzi's file to all of the other cold case file."

"Get out!" I yelled "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE NOW!!"

  As I was staring out the window over looking my back yard Loka, Ino, and Nick teleported in. I anxiously looked at them with desperation which quickly turned to depression.

"I'm sorry Colton, we haven't had any success with tracking down Lexi," Nick said sadly "Don't worry, we will not stop looking until she is found!"

  We all sat down in the dining room attempting to figure out what we have missed in our search for Lexi.

"Please Lexi," I thought to myself "Please be okay, I can't live without you! You have to be alright. A sign, anything, just give me a sign!"

"There has to be something else we can do! "Ino said "I mean, damn it, we are vampires! Loka, do you have any other ideas? Loka....Loka?"

  We all looked at Loka and it was quite disturbing for me to see how she looked, I have never seen her like this before. It was like she was completely zoned out, like her body was here but she wasn't.

"It's okay Colton, this is another one of her powers. She is having a vision, she should snap out of it any moment now."

  No sooner had Ino stopped talking Loka came back to us but we could all see that she was scared to death.

*sorry for the change of scenery, I had to move them out of the sunlight, so a few pics are messed up...lol*

"Loka, what did you see?....Loka" Nick said sternly as Loka looked right at me.

Colton...I uhhh..." Loka said looking down and stopped talking, tears streaming down her face.

"Loka please, what is wrong?"

"Uummm Colton....I have good news and bad news."

"I want the good news!" I said immediately letting my mind drift to Lexi, praying she was okay.

"Yes Colton, Lexi is still but...she is very badly hurt and locked in a cell with no possibility of escaping on her own. I wasn't able to see her until you were just now thinking of her, that has never really happened to me before."

"She...she is still alive!" I said bursting into tears "Lexi, I knew you were okay, I just knew it! Keep fighting, we WILL find you!"

"Loka, look at me!" Nick said grabbing Loka "Did you see where this place is? Is it here in Starlight Shores?"

"Yes, it is a cabin deep in the forest...here in Starlight Shores. But I don't know where this forest is."

"Simlian Forest....it is the only forest here!" I blurted out becoming anxious again.

"Alright listen closely," Nick began "Colt, I know you wont like this but, Ino and Loka, we need to stake this place out, at least for a few days. We need to figure out what we are walking into, every in and out of the cabin, and closely watch whoever is keeping Lexi captive. Once we do that then we can figure out how to get her out of there."

"I don't like leaving her there any longer but I do understand! Lets get started now please!!"

  From morning until dusk we made plans, mapped out the entire Simlian Forest, and drew out everything Loka saw in her vision. With everything in order Nick and Ino headed out for the cabin, Loka stayed with me partially in case she had another vision of Lexi.

Chapter 9.6 - Trapped!

*BANG BANG BANG BANG*

  As I slowly woke up my head was pounding and I heard an annoying banging noise that made my head feel like it was going to explode. I tried to look around but my eyes seemed to stay fuzzy for a long time.

*BANG BANG*

"Wake up!" I heard a man with a very deep voice say, one that I did not recognize at all.

  I sat straight up, seeing clearly, and became well aware of my surroundings. I was in an all white room that....

"Oh my gosh!" I thought to myself, my eyes becoming very wide "I am in a jail cell! With nothing but a wooden board chained to the bed to sleep on!"

  After realizing what I was in I shakily looked at the man standing on the other side of the jail door. He was very mean and dark looking and he was defiantly a vampire! He didn't give off the same impression as Colton's friend though. I instinctively reached for my phone, I needed Colton!

"Don't bother, you will no longer be needing your phone or your wallet." The man said with an evil grin.

I jumped up, went to the jail door and shook it like crazy.

"Where am I? What do you want with me? I DEMAND to know what is going on!!"

"You will NOT be demanding anything from us! Cooperate with us and you wont get hurt...too much."

"Okay..."I said becoming very scared "Could you at least tell me how long I have been here?"

"3days," The man said before walking to the end of the hall and sitting down at the desk.

"3 days!" I thought to myself as I sat back down on the wooden bench "What the hell is going on?! What do they want with me and....oh no! Colton! He is probably going crazy right now!"

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Colton's POV

"I...I don't know," I said wanting to break down "She saw that magazine cover and the story, freaked out, and ran out of the house. I have been trying to call her this whole time but it just goes straight to her voicemail."

"Alright Mr Daniels," The officer said looking at me sternly "I need you to tell me what you know about the disappearance of Lexi's parents, Haley and Luca Abruzzi."

  I told the police officer everything we knew, even though it wasn't much and we weren't suppose to get involved with the police. After getting all the info I could give the police officer called her superior and the got a search team together, missing posters out, and a constant news story going.

"Now what?" I asked

"Now we need you to just sit here and wait," The officer said "Let us do our job and try not to do anything that would jeopardize our investigation."

  After the officer left I stayed on the couch and watched the news. Sim Nation News already had the story going and they constantly talked about Lexi's disappearance the whole time I was watching. It broke my heart every time I saw the story and her picture on the tv, I just wanted her back in my arms.

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Lexi's POV

  As I sat on the floor in the corner of my cell I was wishing to be back in his arms instead of wanting to hide. Instead of working on my career and being with Colton I was spending my days in pain and panicking about being beaten again. I had scars and bruises all over my body and my hands had gone completely numb, I think they were broken. My eyes had been hit so many times they were constantly bleeding, like I was crying blood. I was beaten and touched multiple times a day because I would not give these people answers to their questions, I didn't even know what the hell the were talking about! The only thing that made me fight to stay alive was Colton. I was starving because they would only give me one cracker and two sips of water maybe every few days, I could see how much weight I had lost and how loose my clothes were getting on me.

"Colton I wish I could tell you I love, even if it was for the last time."

  My tears and thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of my jail door being opened. The vampire that had taken my phone and wallet walked in, I had learned from eavesdropping that his name was Dimitry. He yanked me up by my arms and threw the clothes at me.

 

"You will put these clothes on, now!"

"No, no I wont!"

  Dimitry pinned me to the wall and began ripping my clothes off and threw them across the floor before dropping me to the ground.

"Change NOW or else!" He spat at me, his blood red eyes seemed to stare into my soul.

  I still refused to change or do anything else he told me to do. Dimitry spit on me, walked to the jail door and whistled down the hallway.

"Matt, Tyler, get in here now!" Dimitry yelled.

Two other men walked into my cell, both just as scary as Dimitry (even though one had funky green hair.)

"Make her change her mind! Do whatever you need to do to convince her!" He said before walking out.

As he walked out Matt and Tyler came towards me with a look of victory.

  Over what seemed like hours these two men hit me more than I had been hit (and harder) these past weeks. With each hit I could feel the bones in my face break until all I could feel was numbness. When the beating had stopped I thought they would leave me alone but I was very wrong. The men began touching me all over and were attempting to force themselves on me. I began to panic more than I ever had, this was NOT going to happen!

"GET AWAY FROM ME, LEAVE ME ALONE! I'LL PUT THE CLOTHES ON!" I screamed as I tried to push them away with the little bit of energy I had left, "GO AWAY YOU BASTARDS!"

  The two vampires kicked me to the floor and walked away laughing. Laying on the ground in pain and bleeding the last sound I heard was the click of the jail door before blacking out from being beat so harshly.

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Author's Note:

  Just wanted to give a heads up. The news story picture is not 100% mine. I borrowed the original picture and added my own touches to it for Lexi. The original creator is the girls from the Vampire Mine Legacy (you girls rock!)