by brett hicks
Another creak in the floor, and a heavy foot thumped again. My heart was in my throat now. I really hadn’t imagined it, there was some here! Right about now, I wished my vampire GPS came equipped with some kind of emotion detector, so I was sure what my uninvited guests were here for without any doubts.
Another creak of my ancient wooden floor told that they were trying to stealthily approach my bedroom. Liam was asleep on the couch, which meant that at least one or more vampires were between him and me. My body went cold and hot at the same time as adrenaline fired through my veins like a venti quad-shot mocha from Starbucks.
Seconds were all I had, so my mind ran through the entirety of my bedroom contents, and their current locations.
I have a hairbrush and an umbrella within grabbing distance. Unfortunately for me, the umbrella was not one of those old-school sharp metal tip kinds that you see the heroine in the movies produce for just such an occasion. Mine was more the dull black and cheap tin kind I found in a box of things at the curb when one of my neighbors moved.
I slipped off my bed to the front side, I reached into the shadowy depths of the corner, and my hand was greeted with cheap plastic and metal.
My mind was whirling with different scenarios. I couldn’t let them know I knew they were here, because they were all close to Liam. If I spooked them too soon, then they might kill Liam before he had a chance to respond. My vamp-sensor told me that Liam dwarfed their power, in fact, I was sure I did too, but ambush was no respecter of power.
Cold magic trickled down the short hall to my door, and I was worried now that the person beyond my door could hear my hammering heart.
Creak, creak…
My body tightened up, then listened, coiling like a cat before the pounce. My door creaked open and the large form rushed in all stealth forgotten as he took note of my missing form. I didn’t give him time to search, I lashed out with all my strength with the umbrella.
My attacker stumbled back but grabbed hold of the flimsy metal and yanked it from my grip. I swore, and I placed a kick to his temple as he was stumbling back. My foot caught him with a glancing blow, further toppling him off his intended course. The man was medium built, but very tall, very well-toned and his silhouette spoke of a man used to fighting.
He dodged as I jabbed for him and he nearly tripped me in a sweep. I managed to lean into my bed in time, and I kicked out, catching his gut. I was rewarded with a loud “ufff!”
My victory was short-lived, as the man was now angry, angry that a little street-rat had gotten the better of him several times now. He stopped trying to rush me instead he studied me. That was not good! Anytime a man stops to think about his female opponent, we are in a lot more trouble! Using their innate instinct to underestimate us is our first large advantage as women. Not to say that I was sure he could beat me in a “fair” fight.
He grabbed for my left shoulder and I thrust out with a palm-strike. He deflected the blow short and he lunged in again.
He wants me alive…
At least I knew his limits. I might not like the thought, but I would kill him if given half a chance. My fight or flight instincts were roaring in fully now. I had never had any quarrel with fleeing when needed, but I couldn’t seem to lean in that direction now. He had three friends outside, and I would have to get past them to leave.
If nothing else, I needed more equipment, and I had half a mind to believe he had something I could use. I spun as he came at me as something light up the darkness around us and crackled.
A fucking Taser!
I barely arched my back wide enough to avoid the thrust of the long limb with the taser. Bits of cloth were charred on my shirt, I kicked hard at his left knee-joint, and I slammed into him, my right arm deflecting his taser.
We smashed into the floor like a couple of wrestlers from that show I saw my foster brothers watching when I was growing up. All I needed now was a steel chair to smash in his face with, and I would be a very happy girl!
I jabbed his nose and twice into his cheek. He wrapped a massive meaty hand around my throat and I gagged, and my air was blocked completely. I kept smashing my fist into his face, targeting his nose, over and over again. No matter how big and strong a man is, hit him in the soft spots and he will go down!
Eventually…
After the seventh consecutive blow to his nose I didn’t have much left in me. Black spots danced in my eyes, I reared back, and I just roared in anger. I felt my cold power rush up to greet me like a long-lost loved one.
My fist smashed down and blue flared around me blinding me. I heard, as much as felt, the meatiness of splattered skull contents. When my eyes cleared up, I was straddling a dead vampire, and I had just blown his head apart with my bare hands!
My body shook, I was not injured this time, and I was covered in brains and gore. I turned and retched my guts out next to the body. I heaved and heaved, until my sickness came up dry.
I fell back and slammed my shoulder into my closet door. My body was trembling. I was many things, but a murder was not one of them! Seeing the lifeless brutalized body on my floor sickened me to my bones. I had only intended to knock him out! I didn’t mean to kill him, even if he was going to try to snatch me with that taser of his to guarantee cooperation.
Suddenly, all the other cold energies flashed out. I looked up in time to see Liam prowling in. He looked at my shaking form, and then he cast his gaze to the splattered man.
“Fine work there lassie, now let’s get ye cleaned up. These goons will be missed in short order, but we have enough time to hide the obvious evidence.”
Never have I let a man pick me up like a ragdoll in my life, and I would have loved to live a thousand years to say never to that, but I let Liam scoop me up. I took comfort in his heat and his compassion. He was like a brother born centuries apart, and a friend I had scarcely deserved. Even though I had many unresolved issues with his sexy mistress, Liam was a damn fine person!
A girl gets to break down a bit after she blows up a skull for the first time, so stop judging me! Besides, brains feel disgusting!
Liam carried me into my bathroom and he murmured thickly accented Scottish gibberish into my ear. I had no clue what he was saying, but it made me calm down a little. I winced, when I realized he was sitting me in the tub.
“I’m sorry lass, but you either need to take those things off, or I do. I promise you, I take no joy in a naked girl in such distress. I grew up with four sisters, so I saw Fannies flying all the time.”
If I had been in better control, I would have found a very witty retort to the fanny comment.
***
Being striped, and scrubbed thoroughly by a man was humiliating, and by the time Liam was finished, the shock of the screwed-up situation had snapped me out of my shock. I was still trying to reconcile the whole attack, and what I had done to that vampire, but Liam had seen my pink parts, that somehow bothered me more!
Logically speaking, I understood why he had to scrub me down, because I was covered in blood, and would have drawn excessively much attention in the mortal or the inhuman worlds. You cannot sneak if you’re looking like Carry on prom night.
If I wasn’t sure that I didn’t have any sexual leanings towards men before, I was certain now. Liam was about as hot as a man could come, and not be arrested for it. If I didn’t respond at all to his hands on me, then I was pretty sure that what I knew was now confirmed.
Liam led me to his car and I looked at him as if he was crazy.
“We’re not taking that thing Liam. Where exactly do you expect us to go?”
Liam studied me, and he scratched his cheek.
“We’re going back to the Cold Coffin.”
I shook my head and cut in, “Denied! Thanks for playing though. You can go on back to Seri now, but I’m not going anywhere near that place yet. Or did you forget the part where she was about to execute me for something I didn’t do?!”
I didn’t mean to yell, but well, Seri had that e
ffect on me! I was hurt, hurt that she could believe I would thank her for saving my life, by killing her best friend! I’m not exactly a saint, so sometimes I can hold a grudge, a girl has her flaws…
Liam huffed at me in annoyance.
“Seriously, you’re still hung up on that? Seri did have some reason to suspect you…”
My fangs descended, and I shoved past Liam. I was wearing an old black Metallica tee shirt, and a worn-out pair of light-blue jeans. I had an old hoodie on with many rips in the fabric. I had also put on my oldest pair of skater shoes that were a dull grey with paint and various other stains on them. Anyone who has lived on the street knows not to throw shit out just because it looks a little less than “glamorous.”
I shook my head and I stalked off into the night.
“Go back to Seri, tell her about this, I’ll lay low.”
Liam grabbed my arm and halted my forward motion.
“Lassie, please just come with me. How do you expect to hide form beings with lifetimes of experience on you?”
I smirked my cockiest smile.
“By being what I am. Henry never knew me as a street-rat. He would never think to look for me in any of the places I’m going to be hanging out.”
Liam seemed to consider his options for a moment, he finally let go of me.
“I won’t stop you Thea but take a few of my weapons with you. Please, just accept them, and I will not fight you on this.”
Weapons are a girl’s best friend! Especially a girl who happens to have a lot of bad luck with being attacked by inhumans. I nodded, and Liam led me to his Audi’s trunk. Inside was an arsenal that would have made Buffy propose marriage to Liam on that very spot!
Thirteen:
Seri steeped her fingers and leaned against her redwood desk. Her heart was hammering with raw emotions, grief and regret flirted with her. She had always been remarkable at pushing people away, but she had now sunk to a new low. Not only had she failed to protect a noble daughter who resided in her domain, but she had nearly killed her own kin!
Kin are sacred to vampires, not just a mere turning, but also one whom the person gives a full dose of their essence. Thea had been so close to death, anything less would have killed her as surely as the wounds she was bleeding out from would.
Thea had barely managed to let herself begin to open up to Seri. Seri saw how strong willed the girl was, and she was remarkable. Her lieutenants made jokes that Seri had finally made her trues match in stubbornness. Bix and Liam were right of course, Thea was temperamental and indomitable.
Thea was one of a kind, and so remarkable and beautiful as well. Yes, Seri had been secretly happy with her choice in kin. She could see the girl being her equal one day, for a princess needed strong kin at her side, lest she be left vulnerable.
Seri had managed to survive over three-hundred-years by force of will and stubbornness alone. Not to mention, she was one of the youngest master vampires to hold her own domain for over two centuries. Seri had been in New York since it was still occupied by the British army in the Revolutionary days. Days where human blood flowed in the street like open bottles of wine.
She brooded; Liam had walked out on her, leaving to protect her kin. A job she should have been doing in these first days of Thea’s immortality. The girl was necromancer, and one of the old lines, but she knew nothing of inhuman existence. How Thea had remained so far under the radar, Seri would never know! Seri still shivered at the remembrance of Thea’s blood, it positively crackled with cool power. The power of death that filled the young beauty’s veins made her deadly, and it made her tempting to Seraphina.
Necromancers were said to be amongst the most deadly, powerful and resourceful immortals to ever walk the planet. For even death did not stop a necromancer from obtaining what they sought. This was a grim fact that struck deep fear into the hearts of most immortals. Seri had only met one necromancer before Thea, and she wasn’t a fan.
Seri’s door opened with a bang and she flicked her gaze up in time to see the necromancer lord himself, as if her thoughts had conjured him. His cold energy so like Thea’s and the twined vampire powers surged through, just like her kin.
Dean Sylvester, Lord of the French domain. He had killed off every rival within the borders of France. No being existed within two-hundred miles of him who could challenge Dean’s expanding rule in Western Europe.
Bix strode in behind him, playing jailor, or peacekeeper; one could never be too sure with Bix. She was as likely to execute the bastard with prejudice, as she was to keep Seri from violating the laws set down by her father. The laws that had allowed her to remain free of her father’s wishes this long.
Bix had no love of Dean, she had suffered from his ambitions, and her siblings had lost their lives in France as they tried to escape his early expansion.
“You dare to set foot in my domain! Tell me why I shouldn’t have your head and be done with your menace?”
Her cold tone came out so hard, so barely containing her unbridled wrath, that Dean was stopped in his tracks for just a single moment.
Dean’s pale green eyes widened a fraction, and he smirked his cocky smile. He would have been handsome, if Seri were interested in men. He was six-one and bulk solidly, but not so bulky that he lost range of motion. His nimbleness was legendary, and his movements were as graceful as the most renowned dancers Seri had ever seen, and she was a great fan of ballet.
His rich cultured voice came out with the old accent of the true necromancer and Alchemist lines. Dean had been a live during the war, and he remembered the glory of the lost empire.
“Is that anyway to greet your betrothed?”
He asked with so much sincerity, if Seri hadn’t known the snake so well, she would have sworn that he was truly hurt.
“Right, since three-hundred-years and a continent has not been subtle enough of a no for you, how about I put it this way. If you ever dare to taint my person with such a vile title again, then I shall risk world war, exposure, and possible death just to watch as the life fades slowly from your agonized corpse at my feet. I believe the peace of mind would be worth the possibility of millions of lives lost, hell I know I will sleep better.”
Dean flipped his curly dark brown hair from his eyes and tried to hide the angered look at the same moment. He really wanted Seri for himself; he was convinced that she would be the ultimate trophy. Daughter of his people’s conqueror, and the most powerful vampire born to this world since the alchemists made the first.
“You would do well to remember that I carry the sigil of safe passage, given to me by your father. You do remember your father, yes? The High-King of earth, who would be forced to take personal retribution on anyone bold enough to kill one of his lords carrying diplomatic passage.”
And, now we’re back to his typical song-and-dance. “You can’t hurt me because your daddy will be forced to execute you!” However, two can play this game.
Seri’s lips turned up into a cruel smile.
“Indeed, and you cannot call me fiancé, not with your lack of power to back the title up. After all, how humiliating must it be for you Lord of France to have been thwarted by a young bitch for three-centuries? How your peers laugh at you behind your back, because you are obsessed with bringing that which cannot be tamed, to heel. Perhaps it is time for you to move on and find prey that is more vulnerable. No man is powerful enough to tame the daughter of Cain; you should know this by now.”
Dean’s nostrils flared, and his eyes seethed with his rage. He wanted nothing more than to smack Seri and bleed the bitch for daring to speak to him as she did! But his rage turned to cool calculation.
Seri did not like the look on Dean’s face, it meant he had wheels spinning in motion, and considering the timing, Seri could already guess what one of them had to have been. Her body chilled as she silently brooded that she hadn’t figured this out sooner, rather than blaming her own kin!
“I came because word has reached far and wide that you have al
lowed the death of one of the daughters of a very high placed lord. Lenard Chase is not forgiving. Word is that he is on his way to New York now, so this is your one chance to return to your father’s domain and accept my gracious offer and I will ensure that your city and subjects are not destroyed in his wrath. You did not witness what the Sky Lord did to the Grand Canyon. His storms and winds are so brutal, scientists believed the damage done was caused over hundreds of thousands of years, because trying to accept that one many and one singular event could have such impact on the face of the planet is to invite madness.”
So, he is behind the attack, and likely behind the runes that showed up. I should have thought of this before I flipped out on Thea! She didn’t even know what she was, how stupid am I to have painted my own kin villain of this story?! Especially when I know, a villain stalks my every move!
She laced her fingers together and she smiled at him with her fangs now on display. Seri’s cold icy-blue eyes glowed bright as a lighthouse in the dead of night.
“I refuse. You shall never win, so leave now and you might survive all that you have already wrought, stay and I shall be your unmaking.”
His smile was chilling; his calm demeanor was barely masking the monster beneath the surface now.
“You say the sweetest things to me, and you wonder why you are mine. Do not try to argue, yes, you are mine. I will have you in my bed very soon, then I shall fill you full of my seed and you will thank me every night, as a good girl should.”
Seri’s rage was moments from surfacing and her powers were now a tangible weight in the room between them. The force of the two domain rulers before her staggered Bix, but she managed to stay on her feet.
Seri couldn’t relent now, no matter how uncomfortable she made her trusted lieutenant. This was a metaphysical pissing contest, and one Seri was accustomed to playing with Dean.
Seri held up an open hand and all the air rushed from around Dean’s head. She pulled out the oxygen form that single space. Dean tried not to let the shock show on his face, but he was forced to take a step back, or continue to strangle on the nothingness she had formed. His eyes were wide. Seri had begun to master her powers, she was not a child anymore. Last time he tried to subdue her; she had only managed to escape by a raw burst of brute-force, not finesse. Escaping to America had been her only salvation back then.