by Cat Miller
Brandi heard voices and a struggle in the hall. The owners of the voices came into view. One was very familiar and the other less so, but he reminded her of someone she couldn’t quite place. The first was Darren carrying a lifeless Danielle and the other guy was carrying a mean looking gun and covering Darren’s back. Darren had tricked Danielle into following him six months earlier, and had given her to the Rogue that had been hunting Danielle and other vamp youth for months in order to rob them of their extrasensory powers. Darren’s motivation had been to force Dani to a bond with him. The Rogue had drained her nearly to death in order to absorb her power and Darren had given her his blood to revive her. Dani had nearly died and she lost an important part of herself in the process. Her human half was stolen from her that night and she was transformed into a full blooded vampire. The loss of the humanity gifted to her by her mother still haunted Dani. Fortunately, the bond Darren forced onto her was one sided. Her humanity was still firmly in place at the time of the blood exchange and it prevented the bond from taking hold of her soul.
The warmth in Brandi’s belly grew swiftly. She struggled to hold it back. Just then the door flew open and Samantha walked directly into Darren. Danielle moaned with the impact. The other guy spun around, pointing the gun at Samantha’s face.
“Back away and you won’t get hurt, Sam.” Darren said calmly, but the guy with the gun seemed less sure of Sam’s safety. Samantha put her hands in the air and moved away from the door. In the background Brandi could hear people pounding on the chapel doors, trying to get out.
“Take the bitch. Make sure you get the job done this time. She’s like a bad song stuck in my head. No matter how hard I try to forget her, the bitch just refuses to go away.”
Brandi had to find a way to stall them until help came and Samantha was providing the great distraction. Brandi rummaged around the closet, fighting the flames trying to escape her, until she found a set of golf clubs. Lucky thing the Country Club had a golf course, because the clutch purse she carried wouldn’t have done her any good in this situation. She exited the closet behind the armed man with a club raised over her head ready to swing.
Samantha looked her right in the eye and yelled, “No, Brandi, let them take her! We will all be better off this way!”
The armed guy spun around to face her. The club struck the shoulder of his gun arm instead of his head. It knocked the weapon loose, but he caught the gun, and his balance, as Brandi rushed him. She only had to keep them from leaving without getting shot. That’s what she told herself, but she wasn’t fast enough. The rage looking back at her from behind the dark eyes of her opponent froze her soul. He twisted her roughly with one arm, trapping her against his chest and slamming the muzzle of the gun into her temple. Samantha yelped in protest behind her and the sound of people banging on the chapel doors from the opposite direction grew louder. The pain in her head from the impact of the gun angered Brandi and made her stomach roil. A little of her hard-earned control slipped, and the heat crept though her hands, scalding her captor. He released her quickly and pointed the gun at her head again. His incredulous look and the struggle went unnoticed by Darren, who had already shouldered his way through the doors and was heading down the front stairs. Samantha was cowering in the corner. The guy lowered his voice to a confidential level and whispered to Brandi.
“Look, I don’t want to hurt you or anyone else. Just stay where you are. You can’t win. Please, just back off.”
His entire demeanor had changed and he suddenly seemed as young and frightened as Brandi. She could do nothing but stare into the sable depths of his haunting eyes while he backed out of the door. The spell was broken when the door shut and the sound of his retreating footsteps faded. Shaking herself, Brandi went to the door after retrieving her golf club. Her mother entered with a smile on her face.
“Well that was entertaining, wasn’t it girls? I guess we won’t have to suffer through the bonding after all.”
Samantha jumped up from her hiding place and tried to stop Brandi’s exit.
“Where do you think you’re going? You can’t fight them with a golf club!” The sound of squealing tires echoed from outside.
“I’m going to try to slow them down, or at least keep up with them until help comes. Either help me, or get the hell out of my way, Sam.” Brandi glared at her twin. Samantha folded her arms across her chest, silently communicating her unwillingness to help Danielle. Brandi pushed past her and sidestepped her mom to streak through the doors into the night.
“Tell Daddy to call my cell,” she shouted over her shoulder.
Running full tilt in heels was no easy task, so she discarded them and sprinted to the waiting limo. The driver stood stunned, gaping after the retreating van in the distance. Brandi hopped behind the wheel. She drove straight across the lawn all the way down the hill. Luckily the driveway leading to the Country Club was long so they hadn’t turned onto the main road yet. She would see which direction they turned. Her belly burned and the heat from her hands was causing the steering wheel to become sticky as it melted slightly. The breathing techniques and calming exercises were impossible to perform during a mission to save her half-sister’s life.
Brandi followed the van at a distance for a few miles but their sudden erratic driving made her think she had been spotted. The van veered off into the city park, sped off the road, and onto the walking paths that lead back into the trees and hiking trails. Thank God it was dark outside. She prayed no one would be walking in the park when she hopped the curb for the second time that day and sped through the trees. The instinct that told her when to stop and listen made her pull over and quickly cut the engine. Listening closely, she followed the sound of a running engine and male voices. Being careful to not be seen, she crept forward on her bare feet.
“Look, you sick bastard, this is not part of our mission! We are to retrieve the girl and take her in. You don’t have permission to act out your sick fantasies on her!”
The younger man’s voice was full of disgust for Darren. They were standing in the beams of the headlight and Brandi hoped that would make seeing her in the darkness more difficult. The van’s side door was wide open and Danielle’s white dress was visible in the shadows.
“This is not a sick fantasy, you ass! She is my mate and I have every right to do with her as I wish. I need to speak with her. I need her to understand the depth of my love and give her the chance to accept me. I need to apologize. I think if we exchange blood again, now that she has changed fully to a vampire, the bond will be complete.” Darren paced, nervously raking his hands through is blonde spikes.
“You didn’t exchange blood the last time! You forced the bond you suffer from now. I can’t believe you talked him into trusting you with the Hypnovam. Do you plan on giving her a choice this time, or will you steal her blood again?”
Darren didn’t reply, only looked at the guy sheepishly. Shit. He was going to do it again. He planned to force his blood down her throat to solidify his bond with Dani.
“What do you think he is gonna to do to you when he realizes you duped him?”
The guy looked in Brandi’s direction, and she ducked, but his gaze continued around the clearing. Darren paced to the other side of the van and the guy followed. This was her chance. No way could she stand by and wait for back up while this freak forced Dani into a deeper bond. The bond is a sacred union to be given freely, not stolen by whoever wants your obedience and affection. She couldn’t think about it. She had to just do it while they were arguing and out of sight. Brandi emerged from the trees and sprinted toward the van. Danielle looked to be uninjured. There was no visible blood or broken bones and her eyes were open.
“Can you hear me?” Brandi whispered. Danielle blinked once.
“Can you move at all?” she asked, but Danielle only stared.
“Ok. I’ll take that as a no. I’m getting you out of here.”
Slowly, she dragged Danielle to the door of the van and listened to the
heated discussion a moment longer before hauling Danielle over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Brandi was strong, being a vampire, and she had no trouble lifting her petite half-sister and running toward the woods. Just as she entered the trees, Darren and his gun toting accomplice circled the van to find Danielle gone. A sound somewhere between a scream and a roar ripped through the trees from behind her and Brandi let her instinct take over. She couldn’t out run the older, stronger males. She needed to slow them down. Turning, she sank to her knees. Still holding Danielle with one arm, Brandi pointed her palm toward the van. She let all the anger and fear swelling in her gut explode in a blast of energy that blew back her hair and caused Danielle’s gown to ripple around her face. Thank goodness she hadn’t chosen a big puffy gown. The fire ball that emerged from within Brandi raced toward the van. Both men leapt for safety to avoid the flames. The van exploded, making the night brighter than mid-day for a few long moments as Brandi got back to her feet and ran for the limo.
“Holy shit! Holy shit! I can’t believe I did that. I hope I didn’t burn you,” Brandi told to Danielle.
She ran and finally reached for the car door, depositing Danielle unceremoniously onto the floor of the backseat. She had no time to buckle her in. Brandi marched around to the open driver-side door. She was startled by the report of a gun, and stopped when sharp pain bit into the left side of her back and slammed her against the vehicle. A second shot struck her higher and to the left. Stunned by the impact, Brandi righted herself, and climbed behind the wheel.
“The bastards shot me! Twice!”
The shock of that realization had no time to sink in. She had no time to think, only time to drive. She slammed the door shut and was thankful for the use of her right arm. Her left arm wasn’t cooperating. A gunshot wound sounds like a painful thing to have, but the reality of it is unfathomable. The pain in her chest and back throbbed with her heartbeat and every beat caused a hot river to run down her front. The red heat bloomed across her new gown as she drove.
“Dani, I’m going to drive as fast and far as I can. I need you to hold on if you can, because if I kill you in a car wreck after saving your ass and getting shot, I’m gonna be pissed off.”
Her words at the end sounded sluggish to her own ears, but she needed Dani’s promise of silence. No one knew of her pyrokinesis except Doc Stevens and she wanted to keep it that way. If her parents found out they would lock her away to protect her from the Rogue. She could only pray Darren and the other guy hadn’t seen her and didn’t know where the flames had come from. The speeding limo careened onto the main road, nearly hitting a passing car.
“I’m driving toward home. I don’t know if you know what happened back there, but if you do I expect your vow of silence in exchange for saving you. I’m not ready for anyone to know yet.”
Dani made no response, but Brandi hoped she understood. She raced toward home, running red lights and nearly hitting two other vehicles. The world whizzed by and Brandi could feel herself slipping away. A puddle of her own blood spread across the seat and dripped to the floor of the limo. She began to cry, shaking with shock, and weak from blood loss. She pulled to the side of a street she believed to be very close to home, not wanting to pass out behind the wheel and harm anyone else. At least she was numb, now that the throbbing ache had passed. She didn’t bother trying to brush away her tears. Her hands were covered in blood and it wouldn’t do for her father to find her body with blood smeared across her face. She spoke and hoped Danielle could hear her. She was going to die there on the side of the road. She could feel her life slipping away and pooling on the seat next to her, but she had a few things to say before that happened.
“Tell Mom and Daddy I love them and I’m sorry. Tell them I believe sometimes loving someone means you have to let go in order to save each other. Tell Samantha her soul is a deeper, more beautiful place than she wants to admit, and it’s time to grow up. Tell JR his big sister loves him more than chocolate chip cookies.”
That had been a private joke between her and her brother, because nothing was better than chocolate chip cookies, except her little brother.
“I’m so sorry we didn’t get a chance to know each other better, Danielle.”
Brandi didn’t know why, in her final moments, she was thinking of the guy that had held a gun to her head and had probably shot her in the back. When her eyes drifted shut, all she saw was the deep dark sadness in his eyes looking back at her. With her final words she granted absolution to the enchanting stranger.
“Tell him I forgive him. The guy didn’t want to do it. Did you hear him fighting with Darren? He warned me not to follow. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
With that thought, the memory of the fresh, sun-dried laundry and citrus scent she had taken deep into her lungs when he held her tightly against his chest, and the sensation of cold steel at her temple, Brandi let oblivion swallow her whole.
TWO
He was vision in black. Chase was the most beautiful man Danielle would ever see and he belonged to her. He’d insisted on the contrasting colors they wore on the day of their bonding ceremony. He told her that she was everything light and good in the world and he’d known no real light until the night her lips touched his for the first time. That’s when the sun, his Lovely, his Soleil,found his heart and filled it with light. He was convinced that he would continue to have dark corners and shadowed places inside himself until she truly became a part of his soul at their bonding. He had a white suit to change into after the ceremony to signify his entrance into the pure light of her soul.
He was such a romantic, but the world would never know about the soft center lurking beneath the nonchalant exterior he carried like a shield. That part of him was only for her, and someday, their children.
Chase smiled at her from the other end of the chapel and the world narrowed down to just the two of them. She took in every detail, committing to memory the way his dark, nearly black, hair shone in the light of the chandelier, and his blue-green eyes that made her think of the ocean on a perfect summer day. The open adoration she felt for him was reflected back at Danielle in his gaze as he took her in as well. This moment would be burned into her memory and cherished always.
That had been her last thought before the chapel went dark and a distressed cry arose from the crowd attending the ceremony. In the same instance, the lights went out, her path to Chase was blocked by the slamming of the double doors to the chapel and a stinging bite to her hip took her to the ground.Unable to move or see, she couldn’t fight the arms cocooning her like a precious child. Her powers were completely out of her reach and her stomach did a nauseated flip when Darren began to whisper nonsensical love words and apologies into her ear.
No… not this again.
She wanted so badly to fight, but he had drugged her, and this time there was no fighting it. She was a full blooded vampire and she knew from past experience that the drug was engineered for use on her kind. The darkness became thicker and dragged her down to an unknown silent depth Danielle could not escape.
The bouncing and rocking was making her sick. She wished Chase would be still and stop rolling around in bed. He must be having another bad dream. He’d told her about his reoccurring dreams of the night Darren had carried her away to be his lifelong mate. Chase could do nothing to stop him. Usually if she snuggled up and held him tightly he would settle into a restful sleep, but she couldn’t reach him tonight. Oddly her arms wouldn’t move so she tested her legs, they too were useless. Then the voices drifted in from someplace far away and the memories came rushing back to her in a tidal wave. She wasn’t in bed with Chase. She had been taken from the chapel by Darren. She believed herself to be in a moving vehicle. The movement of the car, compounded by the drug he had used, made her stomach roiland acid burned the back of her throat. Two people argued vehemently as her head flopped around against the metal floor with the sharp turns of the vehicle. Still unable to move or really understand the words of her ki
dnappers, she slid forward into the front seats as they came to a sudden stop.
Shit. How was she going to get out of this one? She had to have used up her nine lives by now. Danielle’s mind began to wander. She was counting the number of times she should have died in the past year to see if there were any spare lives left. Then a familiar face came into her line of vision. Brandi. How had she gotten there? Had they taken her too? Brandi took Danielle’s chin in her hand looked into her eyes. Danielle still couldn’t hear but she could clearly read Brandi’s lips when she asked, “Can you hear me?”
Not knowing how to let her know she hadn’t heard but she understood, Danielle blinked. She hadn’t realized she could do that, but Brandi seemed to get her acknowledgement.
“Can you move at all?” Brandi asked.
Danielle remained unblinking, hoping to express her helplessness. If she could just get at her powers she would mentally kick her captors combined asses, but it was locked away from her. A moment later the world tilted on its axis when Danielle was dragged upside down from the open vehicle that she could now see was a van. Brandi quickly moved into the night. Her eyes still open, all the world’s sounds came back in a rush as Brandi knelt down and let loose an amazing fire ball from her hand that ripped the van apart. The explosion was hot and beautiful. Danielle wanted to applaud her half-sister. She was awed by the extrasensory power Brandi possessed and wondered for a moment why she hadn’t known Brandi was so powerful. Why hadn’t Griffin ever told her during his many visits to the condo she shared with Chase? Brandi turned and ran like the devil was on her heels. Maybe he was. If the Rogue was with Darren, then Brandi had just exposed herself to an incomprehensible evil and would now be a target too. Danielle could never pay back her half-sister for the risk she was taking. Brandi dropped her in the back of a limo and slammed the door. A moment later the sound of gun shots echoed around the compartment of the limo and Brandi hissed from the driver side door. “The bastards shot me! Twice!”