by T. R. Lester
Grace put her feet on the floor to stand and started to get dizzy.
“See?” Draven tells her.
“Take me home then.”
“I don’t think you need to be alone tonight. Since we found his little hide out and you’ve lost so much blood, you need to have someone with you.”
“Do you drink from humans? Do I need to worry about being bitten by you?”
Draven smiled.
“No. I get my blood from donors or blood banks. I only drink from humans when they offer it to me and then it’s only a small amount. Are you offering?” Draven asks with a grin.
Grace studies Draven’s expression for a moment to see if he’s serious.
She doesn’t answer his question.
“Alright. Since I shouldn’t be alone, would you mind staying at my house with me tonight? I mean, I have an extra room, or the couch, and you can bring your… blood with you.”
Draven leaned his head back and laughed.
“What the hell is so funny?”
“First, I’ve already had my blood, and second, I would never dream of trying to share your room with you.”
Grace rolled her eyes.
“Fine. Then take me home. I have to feed Shasta.”
“Who is this?”
“My cat.”
Let me gather some clothing and a few things. Stay there and don’t try to get up again, please.” Draven tells her.
She gives him a nod.
Grace sits and waits on him and wonders to herself how she could have missed the fact that he’s a vampire. Was she losing her touch? Were her detective skills getting rusty?
“Damn it.” She whispers.
Draven comes back down stairs with a duffle bag and sits it on the couch.
“Are you sure you don’t need blood?”
“I feed once per week. If I’m injured, I only need it to heal.”
“You were injured today?”
Draven nodded.
“Badly?”
“No. Just a few slashes and bites.”
“We ready?” She asks him.
“Sure. Can you walk yet?”
Grace tries to stand again only to fall back on the couch. Draven walks over and picks her up, carrying her like you would carry a child.
“Grab the duffle bag.”
“This is so humiliating.” Grace moans.
She reached down and grabbed the bag handles and Draven walks to the back door.
“Key in this code. 4593.” He tells her.
“Really? You’re giving me your security code?”
“Just key it in.”
Grace enters the code and opens the door. Draven walks out into the garage, turning so that she can pull the door closed and enter the code again.
Walking over to her car, he opens the passenger side door and deposits her on the seat. She buckles her seat belt and he closes the door.
When he gets into the car, Grace is looking at him.
“What?”
“I’m just wondering if letting you in my home is a good idea.”
“I won’t bite.” He says with a smile.
“Not funny.” She says.
Backing out of his garage, he sees Ms Nosey at the fence again.
“Your neighbor?”
Draven groans.
Grace laughs and Draven drives down the driveway and into the street, making a right to head to Grace’s house.
Chapter 15
Neal hears the intruders as soon as they enter. He silently walks from his living quarters into the main office. He can smell the vampire and the human female as they make their way through the building.
“Lucas. Try to slow them down when they get up here.”
Neal goes back to the hallway with Lucas that leads into the main office. He waits for them to enter his office.
Thinking to himself, he decides to kill the light one and be done with it. He’s tired of him nosing around every lair he inhabits.
He hears the click of the door opening and gives them time to get into the office.
Looking over at Lucas, he motions him to go and attack. He watches as Lucas bursts through the door and attacks the female. He follows behind, attacking the light one.
Extending his claws, he slashes at the vampire, seeking purchase in his neck. The vampire is strong, much stronger than Neal remembers.
“I’m going to kill you this time light one.”
“Not today you won’t.” Draven tells him.
Draven slashes at the strigoi’s face and neck, tearing small chunks of flesh away. The strigoi growls in pain and pulls his leg back, kicking Draven in the back, sending him across the room. Draven stands and lunges at the vampire again,
They continue to claw and slash at each other. Draven manages to get a punch in to Neal’s temple and the evil vampire hisses at him. Neal bends down, extending his canines, and pushes Draven’s head back, trying to get an angle to bite him. Draven rears his head back and head butts Neal. The vampire shakes his head and slashes at Draven with his claws.
Draven grasps the vampire’s neck with his claws and sinks them into his skin. The vampire hisses as Draven pulls his claws, allowing blood to spray across his face. He raises his legs and flips the vamp over his head, flipping over onto his hands and knees as Neal hits the floor. Draven runs at Neal again and rams his extended claws into the bastard’s chest, trying to reach his heart and rip it out. Neal shoves Draven with both hands before he can get a grip on his heart, and Draven flies across the room hitting the opposite wall. Draven bends slightly and propels himself up through the ceiling to get away from Draven.
Before he got away from Draven, he saw Lucas on the floor, blood pooling around him. He walks across a few ceiling beams and drops down into his quarters. His legs collapse from under him and he sinks to the floor in a heap. Reaching in his pocket, he pulls out his cell phone and calls Francine.
“Francine here.” She says.
“I need blood.”
“Why can’t you get it from your place?”
“I’m injured. I can’t walk to the blood room.”
“I’m busy right now, but I’ll be there in a few hours.”
“I’ll be dead in a few fucking hours. Get over here, now.”
“Well, maybe I should wait then.” She says with a sneer.
Neal knows at this point he’s going to kill her.
“Francine, if you don’t come now, and I have to suffer one more minute, I will kill you. But, not before I let the city know your little secret.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Do you really want to try me Francine?”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Neal ends the call and drops his phone to the floor. Turning slightly, he grabs the sheathed knife from the table he fell next to. He’ll keep it close as Francine’s end has come. She will find herself in the same predicament that her director is in.
He should have known it would come to this. She’s a heartless bitch who’s only concerned with herself. When she suggested that he take Director Tanner so that she could run the department, he really didn’t like the idea, but he gave in. He has no need for her any longer. She’s served the purpose he needed her to. She helped him get everything set up and get his business started. With him killing her, he will need to find another location as the one currently under construction is hers. That won’t be hard to do. He’d gladly look for another place just to be rid of the bitch. He could always find another human to feed him since he likes his meals fresh from the vein. Maybe Grace could serve that purpose. He’s tried to avoid her through the years. But, since she’s on the case of the woman he killed, he knows he’ll have to kill her sooner or later. She won’t stop until she finds the killer.
Neal thinks back to before he was turned. He led a lonely life. He never went out or had many friends. The friends he did have probably didn’t even notice when he left. After being turned, he knew he couldn’t continue to live a human l
ife. He couldn’t control his bloodlust. All the bodies he left in his wake can attest to that. The one night he chose to go out with his few friends and get drunk was the turning point in his life. He met a beautiful woman, one who seemed to be truly interested in him. They talked and he drank. At the end of the night, she asked him to go home with her. Since he didn’t get offers like that very often, he accepted. She had just moved into town and hadn’t even found a place to live. She was staying at the local Comfort Inn. She took him back to the room and promised him endless hours of pleasure. What he got instead was endless hours of torture. She restrained him and drank from him all night, leaving him too weak to fight back. She slept the whole day and when night came, she started over again. Before dawn came, she told him she was going to make him like her. She drained him as he lay there, too weak to move or scream. That night when he awoke, he felt different. Stronger and more alert. Then, the bloodlust took hold. The woman was nowhere to be found. She had left him there alone. He never saw her again. He stumbled out of the room and went on the hunt. His first victims were two teenagers leaving the theater. He quickly drained them and searched for more blood. He killed seven people that night before his lust was sated. He couldn’t go home, and he had no job and no money to get a place to live. He managed to find abandoned buildings to sleep in during the day. He quickly found out that the sun was no longer his friend. He had stayed out on that first morning until the sun came up. Before he could find shelter, his skin was bubbling from the burns caused by the sun. During that first week was when he ran into Francine. His first thought was to kill her as he had the others, until he talked to her and found out she was just as twisted as he was. She helped him with money and a place to live and kept him off the streets, allowing him to feed from her. But, the longer he was around her, he could see more of her evil personality and true goals come to light.
The keys in the lock brought him out of his reverie. Looking over, he saw Francine walking in.
“What happened to you?”
“Help me up.”
She leaned down and grasped his hand, pulling as he tried to get to his knees. When he was on his knees, he crawled over to the couch where she helped him sit.
“I was in a fight, with the light one. It seems your detective has found my hiding spot.”
“Grace?”
“Yes, who else would I mean?”
Francine took her jacket off and rolled her sleeve up. Neal usually drank from her wrist so she was preparing for him.
“I need your neck this time.”
“Why?”
“It’s faster and I can take more blood in a shorter period of time.”
“But why now? You always use my wrist.” Francine says, eyes narrowing.
“Because I’m weak and have lost most of my blood.”
She sits by him on the couch and turns to face him. She didn’t get a chance to say anything else because he grabbed her and buried his fangs in her neck. She let out a scream that was quickly silenced with his hand over her mouth. Francine kicked and swung her arms with desperation. She could feel his deep pulls on her neck and could hear him swallowing her blood down as he gulped. Slowly, her kicks and punches grew weak. Soon she was unable to move her arms and legs. She started feeling sleepy and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. She startled as she knew she was feeling this because he was draining her. Not being able to fight at the point, she opened her mouth in a silent scream. Just as she was about to pass out, she felt his fangs withdraw from her neck. He pushed her back slightly so he could look into her eyes.
“I told you to never cross me. I’ve told you year after year that if you ever did, I would kill you. I’ve had enough of your pompous ass remarks. I don’t need you anymore. You should have realized that by now bitch.”
Francine’s eyes grew wider as he spoke to her.
“However, I think I won’t kill you right now. I have a nice little bed picked out for you in the blood room. I do hope you enjoy it.”
Francine had no coherent thoughts at this point, other than she knew she was going to die. Her eyes closed slowly and the last thing she saw before passing out was the blood-stained fangs of the vampire that she had underestimated.
Neal heard the bookcase slide open on the wall. It served as a passage to the blood room, and he rarely used it.
“Do you think that was a good idea?” A male voice asks.
“What would you have me do? I’m tired of her threats.”
“Still, enough people have gone missing. We need to stop drawing attention our way.”
“I’ll take care of Grace.”
“Like you took care of the vampire?”
Neal shot the male a glare of pure hatred.
“All I’m saying is we need to stay out of sight. I have other assets that I have to protect. This isn’t
the only one. And if I have to rid myself of you or anyone else who threatens that, then I will.” The male said.
“Don’t threaten me. I started this. I spent time and money getting this shit set up.” Neal says.
“Remember what I said.”
The male stepped back through the doorway and the book case slowly slid shut.
Neal’s anger was so great he felt the bloodlust creep in. Closing his eyes, he tried to will his anger back into the dark recesses of his mind.
After getting his emotions under control, he realized that his small enterprise was on the edge of crumbling. And that was something he just couldn’t allow.
Chapter 16
Draven and Grace pull into her driveway. He parks her car, gets out and goes around to open her door. She tries to stand again, but is still dizzy so he reaches in and picks her up.
“I’ll come back for my bag.”
Grace enters her code into the key P.A.D and opens the door. Draven walks in and she points to her couch. Walking over, he gently deposits her on the couch and turns to go back for his bag. When he’s almost at the door, he sees a cat, sitting there hissing at him. He holds his hands up in a placating manner trying to let the beast know he was friendly.
“Shasta!” Grace yells.
The cat darts off, heading to the couch where Grace was sitting.
“Bad girl.” She says to the cat.
Draven returns with his bag.
“Cats don’t care for you?” Grace asks him.
He smiles.
“Well, I’m a predator, as they are, however, I’m a bit bigger. So, I guess it would be the same as if she ran up on a rat bigger than her. She would show fear.”
Grace nods.
“Are you hungry? Do you eat regular food?” She asks him.
“I do eat, yes. And yes, I’m a bit hungry. Point me to your kitchen and I’ll cook us a meal.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I want to.”
Grace points to the kitchen and Draven goes to look through cabinets to see what she has to cook.
He settles on spaghetti. Taking a package of ground beef from the refrigerator and a couple of tomatoes, a bell pepper, and some mozzarella cheese, he gets a pot to start the spaghetti noodles. As he turns around, he sees Grace standing in the doorway. Rushing over to her, he helps her to a bar stool so she can watch.
“You should have called me to come help you.”
“I feel better now. Just hungry.”
“I hope you like spaghetti.”
“Love it.” Grace tells him.
She watches as he prepares the meal. She is totally entertained by the fact that he is a vampire who survives on blood but can also cook human food.
“So, tell me how you ended up here, in Tupelo.” She tells him.
“I was born in Romania. My parents were murdered by vampire hunters when I was seventeen years old. After that, I hooked up with a band of travellers and sought refuge. A couple hundred years later, I left Romania and moved around here and there. I can’t stay in one place too long.”
“Why is that?” She asks.<
br />
“Because I don’t age.”
“How old are you exactly?”
“Well, let’s see. I was born in 1517 and it’s now 2017, so that would make me 500.”
Graces eyes widen.
“Holy shit.” She says.
“It’s not a big deal. Well, not for me. I was born like this so I know no other way. I stopped aging when I was about twenty-four or twenty-five. I kind of wish I would have aged until I was at least thirty or so. The bad part has always been having to move around a lot. Vampires are not creatures who like to be surrounded by different people all the time. They tend to stick close to where they were born. When I finally make a home somewhere, then it’s time to move on.”
“I could see how hard that may be.” Grace says.
Draven smiles.
“How do you know so much about vampires Grace?”
“I have a friend who told me when this case started.” “Gideon Lykos?” Draven growled
Damn it. He thinks to himself.
“Was that a growl?”
“No, I was belching.”
Grace looked at him skeptically.
“Anyway, when I went to the murder scene, I gave him a call to see what he could find on the mark above her right breast. He told me all he knew.”
“I know Gideon. Vampires and werewolves don’t get along, but I have respect for him as he always tries to do the right thing, along with his pack. He’s a decent guy.”
“He is, yes. I’ve known him for about ten years I think.”
“What did he tell you about that mark?”
“He explained what it was for and that it originated from a coven in Tennessee.”
“I’m not sure it was a mating mark now.” He tells Grace.
“Why not?”
“Because the seraphic ones, such as myself, don’t live in covens. Only strigoi do. If she was that mate of one of my kind, he would be searching for her. Or, else he’d be dead. Only death would prevent him finding her.”
“So, your kind doesn’t have covens? What are you thinking then? That maybe the mark had been put on her to throw off the investigation?”
Draven nods.
“When a male finds his mate, his mark will glow. He has to be near the female for it to do this and hers will glow too.”