Blooded

by Jessie Rose Case

  Luce walked with them to the security desk. She gave a very weak, “Hi.” The Vamp nodded to her and looked at her car security. “Ms Lucie Elizabeth Jane Ambrose.” Luce cringed. Only her dad had ever used her full name and that was when he was really pissed at her. Luce rolled her eyes. “Apartment 1B.” The receptionist told her security handing the keys over. Who then herded her over to the lift. Luce followed him with the other two guys behind her. “Don’t you think this is a bit over-kill guys? I mean we are inside one of the company’s own buildings, with its own security which is ours.” The doors opened and they all walked in and turned around. Now she had two huge security guys standing in front of her. Could this get any weirder? she thought. “We do as instructed Ms.” Luce looked at the elevator numbers thinking 1 would be one level up. Nope. It was at the top. This building had numbers back to front. “How many apartments on each floor are there?” She asked. One of the two men in front her answered. “4. Except at the top. There’s 2.” Surely that didn’t mean she was going to the top? That couldn’t be right. Luce waited for the lift to stop and the doors to open. They slid silently open. The two males in front of her walked out and checked the floor then indicated she should walk out. Luce cautiously took a look see, then stepped out. As she did her security person from the car who brought up the rear. “This way.” One of the big guys told her. Luce followed blindly. Not sure what was going on. Both stood and turned at the door marked 1B. Her security moved passed her and opened the door. “Please wait here until I have checked the rooms.” Luce stood astounded. Several minutes passed and he was back handing her the key. “You will find everything you need is in the apartment. Should you require anything call 1 to reception. Good night.” He bowed to her and left.

  Luce walked in and he closed the door behind her leaving her alone. Luce looked round the hall. It was straight out of one of those house magazines. She walked towards what appeared to be an open living room area. It was gorgeous and had amazing views out the windows. ‘I need a drink’ she thought and headed to the kitchen area. Opening the fridge she found it fully stocked with food. She grabbed some milk and looked for a glass. Filling it she put the carton back in the fridge. Shaking her shoes off she explored. She found the bathroom, then guest room with en-suite facilities and a closet next to that. On the other side was one door. A master bedroom, with walk in closet and bathroom with a spa tub and separate huge shower with multiple jets and double sinks. Luce walked around. Had she won the lottery? This cannot be for her. Checking the closet, she found her things hanging up or laid out. Ok that was weird. And annoying. Someone had been to her house to get her things? Ouch. Not cool. Too tired to think on it any more. She grabbed her phone and texted Pete. Luce stripped and headed into the shower finding her things already in there. She washed away the day and wrapped a towel round her and grabbed a T shirt and panties from the drawer. Slipping them on she hung the towel over the closet door and climbed into bed. The rest can wait, she thought as exhaustion hit her.

  Nearly dawn and Alex exited the elevator and found his two men waiting for him. “She showered and went to bed.” His second told him. Alex nodded and entered apartment 1A. He owned both. Actually as of today, he now owned the building and it housed his staff. What Luce would think of that, he really did not care. She was his now.

  The end …. Continued in Alex, A Vampire Romantic Novel Book 2

  House Arturo

  Bonus Excerpt:

  The Awaking

  (A Bataari New World Sci Fi Romantic Saga)

  Forward:

  Alex Reynolds.

  It had had a shit week. She had a numb bum and a dam headache. And lived on caffeine. The office lights and computer screens giving her no relief. No one goes into social work expecting to be loved or have an easy life but come on! Nearly every day this week she thought, the world was going to shit. Shaking her head. Alex reflected. The kids hate you, the parents hate you, the courts hate you, your colleagues, god love um, support you through thick and thin and your manager, gives you as much as she can but, it does not help you get the work done in 12 hour days that aren’t meant to exist or get paid for.

  Loving this job is what keeps you going she told herself with a sigh and a half smile, picking up another file. Just as well I thrive on the demands and timescales and I’m no push over, you need to be a tough cookie managing a team of staff that are my hero’s. You have to be tough and hard at times or the emotions would drown you. It tough making decisions that changes families and children’s lives, even if you are striving to make better lives possible and her team, follow her example.

  Alex looked up as the alert was sounded. Yet another Friday night, when the fat hits the fan at closing time. Why the hell do they leave it to the last minute on a Friday night before calling it in ! Alex knows she has no choice but to send out her team, after a long and weary week to do the job. Getting up from her desk, she walks the floor to the duty team, already on their feet waiting on the word to go. Amazing and humbling Alex looked at her team with the greatest awe. And though the coming hours, she would stay by her desk, doing what she does best. Directing and making arrangements as the situation provides. It might be another 11pm finished for both her and the team. Personal relationships take a back seat in this job she reminded herself. But when the jobs done and children are safe in foster care for the weekend that’s all that really matters …… Walking back to her desk after seeing her staff out the door, “who’d do this job?” She asks aloud raising her eyebrows to the ceiling. She nods. She and her team would every single day.

  ***

  Tah.

  Tah’Lai Primera El Getl sat at the console of his craft and observed the planet below him. It was magnificent and beautiful. It was also primitive and dangerous. He liked that. It fed his warrior instincts. A people that still fought over land and wars over insignificant issues that had fractured a world and continued to do so. He frowned. The social feed from their satellites told him all he needed to know. Idiots. Did they not understand what would become of them if it continued? He looked at the blue and white planet. A population of many different cultures and beliefs on many different levels. If things did not change and soon, this world in some ways would repeat the history of his own. His sense of loss hit him hard. A raw pain. A dull heavy burden. No. Not this world. War and disease would not destroy so many lives. Not again. He would not allow so many futures to be lost.

  He had a job to do. His world was counting on him. For hundreds of years they had searched for a compatible world. It had not been easy or trouble free. He had lost friends. He had lost family. They were weary of space and travel. They were losing hope. They longed for a home again and the crystal blue waters called to him. He had so many hopes for this new planet before him.

  Tah, watched as his computers continued to upload information from many sources around this planet. He had three Earth months to obtain the answers he needed. His Rama, his King, was depending on him. He was far from being a diplomat. But apparently, this task was too important to give to anyone else. He had to be the one to do it and he would. Whatever it took.

  ***

  CHAPTER ONE.

  Four weeks earlier.

  Tah had trouble holding onto his temper. He’d been summoned to the Kings ship. His Rama. Highly respected by all. The voice of his people for many many years. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. Tah had not expected this. It was beyond his understanding. Several elders had already left the conference room at the confrontation. “You will do this boy because I ask it of you”. An angry Tah confronted his King. “I’m no diplomat, this is a job for one of the elders, not a warrior. I don’t know what I’m doing. What if I say or do the wrong thing and we end up in a war”.

  His King rose from his seat. “You know only too well how important this is to us, you will go, I demand this of you”. Tah stalked out murmuring, “I’m a warrior not a dam diplomat”. He was use to fighting not talking. He wasn’t known for his fines
se. He was known for killing their enemies. He did not talk to his men but kept on walking. He would be no fit company tonight. What the hell was his King thinking. This had disaster written all over it! He’d fought tooth and nail since his youngling days to stay alive and keep his comrades safe with him. This mission, he spat out, he would have to do alone.

  “It is done”. The King turned to face his advisor Kar’ti. “Are you sure of the visions Kar, he is right, I have tried but he is no diplomat and we have much ridding on this”. Kar’ti nodded solemnly, “I am as sure as this new planet, Tah, needs to be first”. Acknowledging his wise friend, his King nodded. “So be it”.

  ***

  Now.

  “Hay Alex, who said a morning by the sea was a bad idea? Cos I gotta tell ya girl, I”m loving it”. Alex turned and laughed at the antics of Bromwyn. Her team senior and subordinate, dancing on the sands like it was the Bahamas and not Southend on Sea on a semi shinny day, with the tinkering of gaming machines, smells of popcorn and fish and chips in the air. “Err Brom, you do realise that this is a busman’s holiday right, we work here remember, by the sea.” Bromwyn stopped and turned her nose up, “o please, your spoiling the mood girl, don’t remind me, if I squint and think those lights are palm trees and that water is crystal clear with the sounds of the Caribbean playing instead of slot machines, I’m soooooo there”! Alex burst out laughing. “Ok, you go girl, when you find that cabana let me know, I’m on board!”

  It was hard to not keep smiling Alex thought. It was a lovely day. The sun was shining between the clouds, with a soft breeze coming from the water and the beach not in holiday season, not too crowded. Cool drinks and ice cream was exactly what the team needed for a couple of team building hours away from the office and work reality. Down time for a couple of hours, a reminder of life outside of work and back to the desks. Not perfect but hopefully good enough.

  She felt content. The sounds of the sea lapping the shore were soothing. The holiday atmosphere surrounding them of slot machines, music, laughter, joy, the smells of fish and chips and donuts, where a strong reminder of life and fun and her own childhood. She stared out to what was considered the sea, although really just part of the coastal river and reflected. She would be the first to acknowledge that her life was far from perfect. In reality, far too many long work hours and not enough work life balance but who had perfect anyway, right. No one she knew.

  Sighing she dug her toes into the sand. The job, too much knowledge and understanding of lives and what makes us tick was not always a good thing. Knowing all too well, what people are capable of doing to each other and others, had left her empty when it came to relationships. She snorted, a relationship. What the hell was that anyway she asked herself. In her experience it was painful. It was unrewarding. And, it still made her sick when she thought of being gutted yet again. No. As a species, we sucked at relationships. This can’t be it she thought to herself. Her grandparents had loved each other dearly. As a people, we had to do better than this surely, she asked herself looking around her. “I’m not sure that’s even possible” slipped past her lips as she took in and watched the world go by.

  ***

  Since Tah had arrived at his destination, he was grateful time and again for the translation device embedded within his cortex as he listened to the latest information the computer displayed. Tah was pissed. That’s all he seemed to be over the last few weeks. Angry. Displaced. Not sure what he was doing. What was he doing here? He asked himself yet again. This was not a job for a warrior. Give him an enemy to cut down and he would do it, no questions asked. Tah’s ship swiftly moved from one continent to another on its planned path, downloading valuable local information on tribes and traditions and their social media learning allowing the computer to learn as much as possible and moving on.

  This wasn’t going as expected. He became more and more concerned at what he’d found. This planet was full of contradictions and adversary. He was not equipped to deal with this crap he told himself and it unnerved him. He was a warrior who knew his place. His destiny mapped out for him. His ship observed and moved on unseen. Tah smiled at the beauty of his ship. This, is what he knew. Steel, hard work, sweat and blood. It was the best ship they had and undetectable to Earth. Made in their space ports along with all their equipment since being space travellers for over 300 years. It held the latest of their technology and the fastest engines. The cloaking technology alone was a masterpiece in speed and camouflage. Tah smiled, he was grateful that a similar camouflage device was used on each warrior for their personal protection. Tah had first-hand experience on how important this was to them, it saved countless lives.

  Alerted to another completed download. He moved across the console and checked the latest information flooding the computers. The ship had recently arrived at a coastal town from mainland Europe following the flight paths of Earth. He had already gathered much information on the different populations of this world. And Tah had already dismissed parts of it as too difficult or unknowledgeable to be useful in the early days. Shockingly some cultures almost ancient in their knowledge and mysticism and ‘magic’. Tah shook his head in disbelief. Others were so entrenched in war, animalistic behaviour and domination that it reminded him or his own ancient history, and would be hard to see how they could be reasoned with and be allies and bridge worlds.

  Tah seethed. What was he meant to do with this? It was likely that the military of this world were likely to be the biggest challenge to overcome. Re-calling what he had observed from their own history, it was clear their natural sense of protection made them cautious and tended towards instigators of aggression. Strike first, ask questions later. Tah knew all about that, his own history was littered with such actions. His people having advanced passed their animalistic early development. Although Earth’s fire power was not close to the Bataarian’s and the use of it, he reasoned, antiquated in methods and materials, it still packed a punch and some, were so barbaric, that they would end worlds if used. Tah shook his head again. It was clear from the electronic information, that Humans were a determined people, a force to be reckoned with and it was imperative that his mission of co-operation and exchange was accepted. The Bataarian’s had much to offer Earth as did Earth, to the Bataari. Tah wondered again, how the ‘batac’ he was going to do this.

  “How had this world developed and fractured so differently”. He pondered aloud, not used to seeing such huge differences in cultures and behaviours in peoples it had shocked him. The Bataarian’s all held the same beliefs and social systems. Tah thought back to his learning days. In Liandara their home world, all were equal and added to its culture and welfare. The historic records on board the Bilaara, the Kings ship, were open for all and were used in education of the young. Tah did not know if he’s people were prepared for this.

  It seemed a backward step to him. It would take time and Tah thought only the learned elders would really understand how different things were on this new world compared with their own. It didn’t help their cause that it had been so long since they last stood on their home world that many had placed it so high on a pedestal that nowhere was likely to mirror it. This situation was going to take a lot more planning than any of them had anticipated he realised. Yes, they had considered a world not as advanced as them or even a world that surpassed them but this, such diversity and division within each other, so much anger and hostility, so little evolved, they had not expected.

  Tah frowned and rubbed his forehead, this was not even the most concerning issue. The females of Earth. Tah’s frown deepened. He had done his research. They were not the care givers of his home world. In many of the cultures he had witnessed and studied, they did not defer to males in the main. Many were leaders as well as having off spring. Many were warriors in many different guises. Many choosing not to pair but to be alone.

  To be so lucky to meet your compatible mate, weather male or female was treasured in his culture. To want to be alone, was such a strange concept
for Bataarians, they longed for such unions. The males and females did not leave their couplings. They were cherished and wanted. It was rare, unusual for it not to be. Many of the females on Earth were alone as their males or females had left them or even more strangely, the women chose to leave their partner. This was unfathomable to Tah. Something that was indeed alien to him.

  In his culture, if you were blessed with a paring, it was for life. No male of worth would give up his female. No female would walk away from a pairing of worth. Tah realised that the fact that many Earth cultures allowed for changing partnerships would also be very shocking to many of his race. Why does this happen? Tah thought. Did that not cause distress and unrest to family units? How was the paring not binding? Did that not affect the young? Tah realised he had many many questions and very little in the way of answers.

  His feelings of inadequacy in being able to advise his people on this only rose. It was all very troubling and would present situations his warriors were unprepared for. Situations he was not prepared for. Tah realised with some urgency that he needed those answers and quickly. Without those, he would not be able to advise his people. “Computer, list all known social elements of children and family support systems that work with children and adults in relationships that have broken down, within this location of the planet known here as Earth”. “Compiling, known departments that work with children and families in Southend on Sea Essex England. Completed. There are seventeen organisations that are known as aiding with family difficulties and working with children and adults. Out of those seventeen, twelve are local agencies responding to the social issues of their time. Four are designed to support adults with addicted personalities, two of those are combined with their legal systems, three are services to lone mothers and or fathers with children and within that, two are government led official departments. One for children with disabilities and one for Children and Families.”