by L. E. Wilson
The hair on the back of her neck lifts straight up. Someone, or something, is behind her. Something has scared her normally brave sister into immobility.
Slowly, reluctantly, she turns around to face this thing that has so rudely intruded upon their night. The first fun time they’d had in the months since their parents died.
The sight before her takes a few seconds to sink in, as it’s made from the stuff of nightmares.
Staggered along the tree line are monsters. Actual monsters. Grotesque creatures with skin oozing the rotting smell of death, and bleeding, bulging eyes. Their bodies are tall and muscular, yet emaciated at the same time. Powerful arms hang almost to their knees. Long, yellowed claws curl at the ends of their fingers. They wear no clothing, and their genitalia hang obscenely between their legs.
The one closest to Emma opens its mouth wide, and saliva drips down sharp, pointed teeth. It pushes its nearly hairless, distorted head forward on its neck and hisses loudly at them.
Emma screamed as Keira yells, “RUN, Emma! RUN!!”
Emma got to work at 7:55am on the dot, just like she did every morning. And like every morning, she walked through the reception area with a “Good morning, Linda!”
The Receptionist put the romance novel she was reading in the desk drawer. Good morning, Emma.”
The security system beeped when Emma waved her badge over the access pad and she pushed through the door, She strode to her cubicle, locked her purse in her desk drawer, and sat down to boot up her computer. She took a sip of her soy latte while she waited for the outdated thing to wake up, and tried to shake off the effects of the dream she’d had.
She worked for an independent furniture company in their accounting department. Not the most exciting career, but it suited her. The work was routine, with very few surprises, which was exactly how she liked her life.
Or, so she told herself.
At 8:00am exactly, her boss arrived. Smiling broadly, he stopped by Emma’s desk. “Good Morning, Emma! You look especially nice today.”
She glanced down at her clothes. She was wearing her usual work attire—black pencil skirt, silk hose, black, 2-inch heels, and a forest green blouse buttoned up to her neck. A black sweater thrown over her shoulders completed the ensemble. Her wavy hair was styled back off her face, and she wore minimal makeup.
“Um. Thank you, Mark.” She felt a bit awkward as he beamed at her like he’d just won the lottery.
“I have some meetings this morning, so I’ll probably be here late tonight catching up on the regular stuff. Let me know when you’re leaving and I can walk you to your car.”
“Sure. Thanks.” Truth was, Mark walked her to her car almost every night since she’d started working here a year ago.
“I’ll see you then.” Mark rapped her desk once with his knuckles and continued to his office.
She sipped her latte and turned back to her computer.
“He likes you, Emma,” Darlene, her co-worker in the cubicle across the aisle, whispered loudly.
Emma furrowed her brow and whispered back, “Mark is nice to everyone.”
“Yeah, he is. But, Mark doesn’t stop and say good morning to everyone, or compliment what they’re wearing, or offer to walk them to their car every night.” With a knowing look, Darlene turned back to her computer.
Emma frowned at the back of Darlene’s gray head. She decided to ignore the comments and turned back to her computer, which had finally gotten to the log in screen. After all, Mark was married, with three kids. He was just a nice guy who was gentlemanly enough to walk her to her car after everyone else was gone.
Besides, she didn’t date. Not since the “bear attack”. Well, other than that one small fling she’d had with a Marine who’d been home on leave, she hadn’t been out with anyone since Keira disappeared. And that was just fine with her. She liked her life the way it was. Orderly, unexciting, and peaceful…and yeah, sometimes a little boring.
Okay, a lot boring. But she didn’t have to worry about anyone else but herself. She did what she wanted, when she wanted, and she didn’t have to explain herself to anyone else.
Emma gave a heavy sigh. Not like she ever really did anything except work and exercise. And on the weekends she spent her time volunteering at the Women’s Center, helping victims of abuse learn skills to be able to take care of themselves and their children: Anything to keep her mind off of her lack of a sex life, and the reason behind it.
Darlene handed her some purchase orders, pulling her from her thoughts. “Are you going to sit there staring into space all day, girl?”
Emma felt her face flush. “No. Of course not. Sorry.” Shoving her personal problems out of her mind, where they belonged while she was at work, she logged onto her computer and started her day.
Chapter 3
Nik woke instantaneously right as the sun was about to drop beneath the horizon. That was the thing with vampires. One minute you’re dead to the world, literally, and the next you’re completely alert. It was kind of cool, actually. You never felt groggy or hung over. Plus, there was the added bonus of expedited self-healing. A little blood, a full day’s rest, and you woke up as good as new.
He stood up, slid on some sweat pants, and twisted his torso around to crack his back. Holding out his arms, he checked out his regenerated, unburned skin.
Cool.
Across the RV, Aiden sat cross-legged on his bed, dark head already bent over his laptop.
Aiden glanced up, eyeballed Nik, then turned his attention back to his laptop. “You know mate, I really think you need to start exercising more. You’re getting downright plump with all of this inactivity.”
Nik barked out a laugh, throwing his pillow at him. He missed the head he was half-heartedly aiming for, hitting the bulletproof shutters over the window above the bed instead. “You wish you had a body like mine, man.”
Actually, although Nik was slightly taller and bulkier, they were both built like MMA fighters. And they loved to fight like them too. Plus, you know, vampires…hello? Physical appearance never changes.
He returned Aiden’s once over. “I guess we could both probably use a little exercise. That is, if you think you can keep up with me.”
“Pffft. With that potbelly you’re getting? I’ll run rings around you. Just let me check in with Dante and make sure everything is on schedule, then we can squeeze in a quick match before you go meet up with Emma, yes?” Aiden didn’t wait for an answer, strutting off in his boxers toward the area of the RV that served as his mobile recon center.
Nik grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it over his head, then strolled over to the fridge to grab some breakfast. What shall it be tonight? O Positive? B Negative? Didn’t really matter. They all tasted like shit, but satisfied his nutritional requirements for the most part. He did need to drink more than he would if he took straight from the vein, but he had a great delivery service set up from one of the local blood banks, so that wasn’t a problem.
He got ragged a lot by the guys, especially his brother, for his diet choice. But they could all kiss his ass. If he wanted to drink bags of plastic-flavored blood, that was his business. And at least he didn’t accidentally kill anyone.
Not anymore. Fucking never again.
Throwing his breakfast in the microwave, Nik propped himself against the counter to wait, drilling holes in Aiden’s back as he talked to Dante, their head Hunter. “So what’s up, Aid? Everything in place?”
Aiden raised his hand and waved at him to hang on, or to shut up, or both, and finished listening to what was being said on the other end of the line. “All right, commander. Sounds good, mate. We’ll see you there.”
He threw his cell on the table and turned his chair around to face Nik, who reminded him, “You know Dante hates it when you call him that.”
Aiden grinned. “So he says. I think he secretly loves it. Anyway, all is good! In three days, they’re going to be surrounding the bitch’s lair. That will give us a little time to get Emma
filled in and on board. We’ll meet up with Dante, Shea, and Christian so they can catch us up on what they’ve found there, and we can get a plan of invasion together.”
Nik chewed on the inside of his cheek as he considered the time frame. “We’re going to need more time to work with her. She’s going to have quite a challenge ahead of her to be ready in three days.”
“There is that.” Aiden leveled a cautious look at his friend. “You know Nik, I’m thinking, maybe we should keep her out of the actual fighting,” he suggested. “Although having some witchy power on our side would be beneficial to our cause, we really only need her to keep her sister out of our way while we get Luukas.”
Nik had to agree. “Yeah, you may be right. If she’s as ignorant of our kind as I think, I don’t know that she’d be any good to us anyway. She won’t be ready.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “Fucking Luukas! I knew when he walked out that day something like this was going to happen. I tried to get him to stay, to take someone with him. I told him she was up to something. But he and his fucking ego think they’re invincible. And now Leeha’s got him, and we have to babysit an untrained witch.”
Even if she is a total babe of a witch.
Pushing his hair back off his face, he voiced his worst fears, “I can’t even imagine what she’s doing to him…or fuck, maybe I can.” He grabbed his bag from the beeping microwave, but he’d lost his appetite.
“He’s still alive, Nik,” Aiden insisted softly. “She’d be daft to kill him. It would muck up all of her plans for world domination. And, she’d have no leverage.”
“But if she can kill him she wouldn’t need any leverage, Aid.” Nik felt uncharacteristically somber as he looked to his friend. He didn’t know what he’d do if Luukas was gone. Luuk was the Master Vampire, the most powerful of them all, and leader of their council. If anything happened to him, that responsibility would fall upon Nik as next in line. No damn way he was ready for that.
Although, if Leeha could manage to capture and contain Luukas, and it seemed she’d done exactly that, the rest of them were thoroughly fucked anyway.
They really should’ve burned her when they’d had the chance.
Aiden came over and stood in front of Nik. “Look at me, Nikulas. Look at me.” Nik lifted his head. “If anything happened to your brother, we’d feel it. All of us. You know that. Luukas is still alive.”
“It’s been years, Aiden.” Nik’s voice was strained with the effort it took him to contain his emotions. “She’s had him for almost seven fucking years.”
Aiden squeezed his arm. “But he is still alive, Nik.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” But will he be sane after all this time?
Aiden scratched his head. “What do you think her point was? Taking him? She hasn’t contacted us. Hasn’t started a war. Hasn’t asked for any kind of ransom, or a deal, nothing.”
Nik shrugged. “I don’t know.” He paused. “But she can’t have him anymore.”
“Then stop with all the gloom and doom, and let’s go get him. I’ve been waiting for ages to see Leeha again.” He glanced around, looking for nonexistent eavesdroppers before confiding in a stage whisper, “I kind of fancy her, you know.” Aiden grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Nik’s shocked expression.
“You are one fucked up vampire, Aid.”
“We established that when we met, Nik, I don’t know why you still act so surprised.” Aiden headed toward the back. “Finish your juice bag and let me throw some clothes on. I’ll meet you outside in five.”
Nik really didn’t know if he could stomach anything after that particular confession, and so sipped at his breakfast cautiously as he reminisced about the day he and Luukas had come across Aiden, bleeding in the middle of a battlefield. They’d hit it off right away, and have been inseparable ever since.
The bang of the bathroom door announced Aiden’s return. “All set?”
“Yup. One sec…” Nik tossed his empty bag’o blood in the recycle container and picked up his cell phone. He hit speed dial for the number he’d programed in earlier and waited…one ring…two rings…three rings…Had he missed her?
“Accounting, this is Emma, how may I help you?” Her soft-spoken voice finally came across the line.
“Meet me at The Vineyard. 9pm sharp. Don’t be late. I have information about Keira.” Nik disconnected the call, set his phone down on the counter, and followed Aiden out into the cool night, both of them barefoot and wearing nothing but sweats and T-shirts. Silently, without a word or look between them, they split up and walked the perimeter, checking for anything threatening or unusual.
All was clear, so Nik walked to the center of the clearing and waited calmly for Aiden, who was now busy doing his Muhammad Ali dance. Such a showboat, that guy. But Nik wouldn’t want anyone else with him when it came to a real fight. Aiden was a powerhouse. The fact that he was a complete lunatic only brought an extra element of surprise with them.
“All right princess, let’s go.” Nik raised his fists in front of his face, sinking down into a solid fighting stance. “Time’s a wastin’.”
“Princess? Princess?? That would be Queen to you, you Estonian bastard!” Aiden charged across the clearing, arms and legs pumping like pistons. Jumping high into the air at the last minute, he caught Nik in the head with a hook kick. With barely a stagger, Nik went with it and then ducked low and caught Aiden around the waist, tackling him to the ground with a whoop!
In less than a second, they were both on their feet again, circling each other. And then, it was Game. On.
Taunts and fists flying, they eagerly went after each other, only avoiding face shots. They saved those for their enemies. After all, why mess up their pretty mugs if it wasn’t necessary?
Thirty minutes later, Nik called a halt to the fun. “Much as I enjoy kicking your ass,“ he grunted, “I need to shower and get ready to go see Emma.” Holding Aiden’s head between his thighs in a scissor hold, Nik gave him a noogie, burning his knuckles across Aiden’s head and eliciting a string of curses from said head.
Releasing him, Nik jumped to his feet and ran into the RV, laughing aloud as Aiden rolled onto his stomach in the damp grass, yelling after him, “You’ll not be getting away with that, Nikulas!”
Chapter 4
Emma’s phone rang right as she stood up to leave work. Leaning her head back and tiredly closing her eyes, she seriously considered not answering for a few seconds. But then, with a heavy sigh, she picked up the receiver.
“Accounting, this is Emma, how may I help you?”
“Meet me at The Vineyard. 9pm sharp. Don’t be late.” A pause. “I have information about Keira,” a very deep, very masculine voice said.
Emma’s breath froze in her lungs as she stared unblinking at her cubical wall. Information about Keira? About her sister? Could it be? After all this time? Wait…
“Who is this?”
But the caller had already hung up. She glanced at the clock on the wall - 7:09pm. She’d get there in plenty of time.
She reached for her purse. Wait, what the hell was she thinking? She didn’t know who that was on the phone. She hadn’t recognized the voice, and they hadn’t identified themselves as an authority of any sort. It could just be someone playing a cruel joke. It had happened a few times when Keira first disappeared.
But that was seven years ago. Why would someone do it again after all this time?
What if it wasn’t a joke? What if it was for real? Could she take that chance? Could she believe that maybe it was an actual lead about her sister? After all these years?
You bet your ass she could.
She slung her purse over her shoulder and yelled, “I’m leaving now, Mark. See you tomorrow.” Without waiting for a response, she practically ran out of the office, nearly falling on her face when her cheap heels hit the slick floor in the reception area.
She was halfway across the parking lot before Mark manage to yell from the front door, “Wait, I’ll walk you out
!”
“I’m good!” She waved before she tossed her bag over to the passenger seat, hopped into the driver’s seat, and started her eco-friendly gas-electric hybrid. Some quick hand over hand action backing out of her parking space sent off a whiff of herself and Emma wrinkled her nose…Ew.
Hitting the gym at lunch for her kickboxing class was a necessary evil, but the time crunch didn’t give her much time to clean up afterward. She glanced at the clock. If she hurried, she’d have time to run home to shower and then to the bar.
Jumping out of her car, she locked it with the key fob as she ran up the steps to her porch. The keys fumbled in her hands, and she almost dropped them three times before she finally managed to get the front door unlocked.
Bursting into her house, she ran upstairs, flicking on lights as she went. At her dresser, she yanked open the top drawer and grabbed some clean underwear. She yanked out the first pair of jeans she found and threw both on the bed.
Hopping on one foot at a time to remove her heels her work clothes were halfway off by the time she reached her closet. She threw her clothes in the hamper and her shoes into a corner.
Spotting her comfy lavender sweater, she tossed it on to the bed with the rest and streaked into the bathroom. Keeping her back to the mirror to avoid what she would see, she turned the water on.
It was an unconscious action after all these years—avoiding mirrors.
The cool water raised goosebumps as it hit her skin. Dumping shampoo on her head, she scrubbed her hair and body with the same suds, then stood under the water just long enough to rinse. The water never had time to heat up enough to steam up the mirror.
Dressed and (sort of) blow dried, she threw on her sneakers, grabbed a protein bar to eat on the way, and ran out the door, barely remembering to lock it behind her.
It was 8:20pm when she walked through the front door of The Vineyard, pausing just inside to let her eyes adjust to the dim lighting. She’d never been to this place, even though it was only five minutes from her house.