by L. E. Wilson
They didn't.
Running his eyes up her shapely legs, over her flared hips, and past those lovely breasts to her lightly freckled face, he raised his eyebrow in question.
Forest green eyes were widened in shock, and her mouth was hanging open again.
"How did you do that?" she asked incredulously.
He straightened up to his full height. Hmmm. Perhaps he could've faked it a mite better. He'd have to distract her with nonsense.
"Are we going in?" he huffed impatiently. "Or did I exert all of that effort for nothing?" Holding the door open with one booted foot, he grasped his opposite shoulder with one hand while he swung his arm in a wide arc. "I think I may have pulled something."
She hesitated a moment, like she wanted to say more, then finally shrugged it off and marched into the building ahead of him.
Aiden let the door slam shut loudly behind them and promptly ran into Grace. She...in her female wisdom...had stopped short just over the threshold. Her heart was pounding loudly, but when no one came running, it slowed back to its normal speed.
When the faint scent of her fear wafted to him, souring her natural yumminess a bit, he took it upon himself to lighten the mood.
"I know it's all dark and romantic and you really want to snog me right now," he whispered loudly, grinning when her spine straightened with indignation. "But it's really going to have to wait, poppet. Your mojo is waiting to be rescued, after all, and I'm certain we can find a more comfortable location to do that than here." The building smelled as new as it looked, and was void of any furniture or decor.
She didn't react to his teasing, at least not that anyone would notice. But his vampire hearing picked up on her accelerated breathing easily, and his nose picked up on a completely new and enticing scent. He barely stopped himself from moaning aloud as his body immediately responded to her siren's call.
Ah, so she wasn't unaffected by the idea he'd suggested.
Interesting.
He took advantage of the moment to look his fill at her flawlessly rounded arse. The tight jeans she was wearing left very little to the imagination, and his cock stirred in anticipation. He held his hands out in front of him, bare inches from her voluptuous behind.
Yes. She would fit perfectly in his palms.
His blood began to burn with a hunger that was quite different than the one he'd woken up with.
"It's too dark. I can't see anything," she snapped, rudely disturbing his daydream.
"Funny. I can see plenty," he whispered back, his eyes never leaving her luscious curves.
She stiffened at his husky tone but otherwise ignored it, and pulled out her cell phone.
Calling for help?
Ah, poppet. No one can help you now. It's much too late for that.
She peeked back over her shoulder. "My cell battery must be dead. Do you have a flashlight or something?"
With a regretful sigh, he released her lovely backside from his hungry gaze, stepped up alongside her, and took her hand. "Come on, luv. I've got brilliant night vision. Just hang on to me."
Lacing her fingers through his, she gripped his upper arm with her other hand and cautiously walked forward with him.
He smirked when he felt her subtly feeling his bicep, and flexed it just a bit for her. His grin widened when he heard her sharp intake of breath, and she dropped her hand. He could practically feel her embarrassment at getting caught feeling him up.
He decided to let her off the hook. "So, where exactly are we going?" he asked quietly.
"I'm not sure, but those three dudes brought my Mojo in here, and I need it back."
Aiden stumbled at her casually spoken words, but quickly regained his footing.
"I thought you said you could see," she accused.
"I can," he insisted. He wasn't going to ask, he wasn't. It wasn't any of his business.
"You gave your mojo to three males? Three? At the same time?"
"I didn't give them my Mojo. They took it."
Aiden pulled up short at her confession. "They took it?" he grated out, an unexplainable rage filling him.
"Shhh!" she scolded. "I think I hear something."
He couldn't hear anything but for the loud, angry buzzing in his head that had appeared directly after her startling confession. Forcing himself to calm down and concentrate, he realized she was right. He could hear male voices coming from another hallway to the left. He started walking again, dragging her along with him as he single-mindedly headed for the males who had dared to violate his Grace.
When they got to the turn, a dim light swung on an old chain, illuminating the way. Sort of. Aiden stopped and turned to Grace to tell her to stay where she was and wait for him to check things out, but she released his hand.
Her sandals flapped noisily as she marched purposefully past him and directly towards the voices.
Catching up to her in two easy strides, he put a hand on her shoulder and spun her around. "What the bloody hell are you doing, woman? You can't just barge in there by yourself!"
She shrugged him off and started walking again, faster this time.
"Grace!" he hissed.
"It's ok," she whispered loudly over her shoulder. "I know Tae-bo."
The female had completely lost her wits.
It was really the only reasonable explanation.
He followed closely behind her, letting her take the lead against his better judgment, rather curious as to what she was going to do next.
Striding confidently into the room, she called out, "Where is Mojo?"
When no one immediately answered her, she repeated the question in Mandarin.
Aiden rounded the corner of the doorway to find she had stopped just inside the room. Hands on her hips, she fearlessly faced down the three human males she must have followed here. He nearly laughed aloud at the shocked expressions on their faces. They appeared to think she was as daft as he did.
Their eyes widened even more when he stepped up behind her. He didn't say anything, but stood quietly backing her up. He took advantage of their momentary lack of motor skills to scan the room, automatically checking for exits.
The humans sat facing the door at the head of a large conference table. No other furniture or decor adorned the place as far as he could see. Two windows were boarded shut behind them from the outside. They were the only other way out besides the way they had came in.
"Well?" Grace threw her arms up impatiently. "Where is he?"
He? Mojo was a he?
"Where's...the...bag?" she continued, speaking slowly and clearly. When no one answered, she heaved a great sigh and stomped farther into the room, bending over periodically to look under the table. She started yanking the empty chairs out one by one, checking the seats.
"Dammit. Where is he?" she mumbled to herself. "I know he's in that bag. He has to be."
Aiden let her go, watching with amusement as the humans looked back and forth between each other while she searched the room, unsure of what to do about it.
Finally, she turned back to Aiden. "It's not here," she told him despondently.
He crossed his arms over his chest, keeping an eye on the humans. "What's not here, poppet?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "The bag! Have you not been listening to anything I've told you? They have my Mojo! He's in the bag they brought in here."
Aiden took another quick look around the room until he saw what she was looking for sitting on a built-in shelf. "You mean that bag over there? The one breathing on its own?"
Grace's head whipped around to where he pointed, sidestepping until she was in front of him until she could see where he was pointing.
A black leather shoulder bag sat there, and it seemed to be filled with something other than money by the way it was scooching its way towards the edge all by itself.
"Mojo!" she squealed happily.
She'd barely taken a step in that direction when one of the humans jumped up and grabbed it off of the shelf, shouting so
mething at her in Mandarin Chinese. She shouted back in the same language, ran up to him, and tried to yank the bag from his arms.
The other two males sprang into action then, rushing over to assist their friend. One grabbed onto the bag while the other one pulled at Grace's wrists and tried to force her to release her grip.
Aiden snarled at the sight of the human's hands on her, revealing his fangs. He was about to give her a hand by knocking the male through the wall behind him when a strange, tingling feeling ran up his spine and flooded his limbs. An unusual awareness rose up inside of him, unlike anything his normal heightened vampire senses had felt before.
It was almost as if the feelings didn't belong to him at all, but were someone else's emotions filling his body.
An ominous growl rose up from somewhere within his depths. The men in suits froze as it shook the walls, like rabbits hoping the predator wouldn't see them if they were very, very still.
Grace, however, obviously lacked that self-protective instinct. Instead of cowering in fear, she took full advantage of their shock. With a shout of triumph, she pried the bag away and held her prize up in the air.
Before Aiden had time to ponder where that particular sound had come from, the hair rose eerily on the back of his neck.
Someone, or something, was behind him. Distracted as he'd been by all the strange feelings and the growling and such, he hadn't even heard them approaching.
Slowly, he turned around, and found himself face to face with five of his creator's former vampires. The males had all been part of the group that had left Luukas' colony to follow Leeha when she'd been banned from the area. They'd gone north to create their own group of miscreants somewhere in the wilderness of Canada, and they hadn't thought much about them until she'd decided to kidnap and torture Luukas.
Leeha, a female vampire adopted into the colony and illegally changed, had somehow gotten it into her pretty head that she would rule beside the Master vampire when she was old enough. An idea that Luukas had quickly put an end to, so she'd thrown a tantrum and declared that she was leaving.
Luukas had let her go and told her she wasn't allowed back, happy to get her out of his hair without having to resort to violence, although Aiden would bet money he now sincerely regretted that decision.
The vampires entered in a single line, dressed much more casually than the suits at the table. They stared Aiden down as they filed into the room and took up positions around him, effectively blocking him from the door, the only means of escape other than the boarded up windows.
He smiled broadly, happy to see his old friends in spite of their strange behavior. "Hallo, mates! Fancy seeing you here, of all places? Don't tell me the queen booted you out?"
That weird presence stirred deep within him again as they stood shoulder to shoulder, nearly enclosing him within the center of their group, but not quite.
Aiden placed a hand on his chest, willing it away by sheer force of will.
He glanced around again at his old mates, his welcoming smile slowly slipping from his face. Instinctively he knew that the hostile eyes that stared back at him were not the males he once knew. With a sad heart, he realized that they had no idea who he was.
"Ah, bloody hell," he murmured sadly. "She's already gotten to you."
The vamp directly in front of him smirked, then looked around at the others. He seemed to give them some sort of silent signal.
Moving as one, they closed the circle around him, completely cutting him off from his female.
"Aiden?"
He heard the nervous tremor in Grace's voice, and hurried to reassure her.
"It's all right, luv. Just keep your knickers on. I'll have us out of here in a jiffy."
He hoped.
Bracing himself for a fight, he took up a defensive stance, feet apart, arms at his sides, ready to bust his way out of there if it came down to it.
One of the males stepped closer, and Aiden turned slightly to meet him head on, holding his ground as the vamp got right up in his face.
"Hey, Steven," Aiden greeted him, deceptively casual. "All right, mate?"
The vamp zeroed in on him, hatred burning from his black eyes. Baring his fangs, his body bowed up at Aiden aggressively.
"Don't play with me...Wanno."
Aiden glanced around. Waano must be a new guy, maybe from another colony. Poor sap. Leeha had sucked him in, just like the rest of them.
Even Aiden had never been immune to her...um...charms.
Then he realized he was talking to him.
"Waano?" he asked. "Who the bloody hell is Waano?"
"I thought you wanted nothing to do with this world?" the vamp seethed. "That the beings here, with all of their disgusting physical needs, were below you?" He moved even further into Aiden's personal space, continuing to speak without waiting for an answer. "So what the fuck are you doing here? If you think you're going to be able to stop us, you're in for a rude awakening. You have no power here," he sneered, practically touching noses. "You can't send us back! We're corporeal now. And we fucking like it."
"Fine, ok," Aiden responded, leaning away with his palms up to ward him off. "Stay as you are. I don't give a bloody hoot," he added as an aside. "But I would recommend reading up a bit on dental hygiene." He waved his hand in front of his face, trying to dissipate the stench.
Steven grinned an evil grin and blew his bad breath in Aiden's face.
"Who the hell is Waano?" he asked again as soon as he could breath.
"Knock it the fuck off!" Another one said from behind him. "We can sense you in there, just like we can sense the others who've made it out and been given a body."
Aiden's gut churned at his words. However, right now, he just needed to get to Grace and get them both as far away from these things as he could.
"Hmmm...yes, well...I'm sorry to say, I believe you're mistaken this time around. I'm still me. Still Aiden!" He grinned at them. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll just grab my female and," he looked around the shoulders of the one in front of him, searching for and finding her. "We'll be on our way."
As he went to walk through the circle, they tightened it further.
"I don't think so," Steven said. "Leeha is looking for you, Waano."
Aiden rolled his eyes. "Still stuck on this, are we?" He sighed loudly. "Again, I am not this 'Waano' person. Or thing. Or whatever. I am Aiden. And, I hate to cut the reunion short, but..." Quick as a lightening strike, he head butted Steven, busting his nose and then tossing him into the arms of his friends. "We really need to go."
Throwing all of his weight forward, he broke through the opening of the circle. Leaping onto the table, he sent papers flying every which way as he ran down the length of it to the window. Hopping down, he grabbed an empty chair and swung it at the glass, shattering through it to the boards behind it. A hard front kick broke the boards in half, opening a good-sized hole.
"STOP HIM!"
The roared order came from behind him. Wasting no time, he reached back and grabbed a startled Grace, who still had a death grab on the bag.
"Out you go, luv." Picking her up, he sent her feet first through the busted window and into the night, glad they were on the first floor. She grunted in pain as she hit the pavement, but there was no time to coddle her and her bad choice in shoes.
Tipping an imaginary hat at the human males, he apologized to them for their loss. "Sorry, mates. The lady needs her mojo back."
Diving headfirst through the window just as one of the vamps made a grab for him, he rolled as he landed and came up into a crouch. Throwing Grace over his shoulder, he took off running as fast as he could go, the bag bouncing against the back of his thighs.
Chapter Five
Grace squeezed her eyes shut, fighting to breathe against the whipping wind as Aiden raced away from the building at a speed that should not be possible.
Not for a human anyway.
As the blood pooled in her head, it brought with it a sudden burst of clarity,
and she wondered how she hadn't seen it before.
Holy crap. She was draped over the broad, muscular shoulder of a vampire; an annoying, hot, yummy vampire who smelled really, really good, in spite of the dusty grain that still covered him from head to foot.
Right on cue, she sneezed as it blew off his clothes and into her face.
"Bless you!" he shouted over his shoulder without a break in stride.
"Thanks," she squeaked in a high voice as he suddenly left the ground, landing without the slightest break in stride a few seconds later.
She held the black bag in a death grip with both hands, and prayed to any gods who were listening that he wouldn't drop her and her precious package. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than she lost the feel of him underneath her. She let out a frightened squeal as she waited to go flying through the air, but he only adjusted her on his shoulder and clamped his arm down firmly across the backs of her thighs again, getting a better grip.
Wait. Was that seriously his frickin' hand on her ass?
She scowled at the blur of pavement as it flashed past. If she were able to do more than suck in raspy gulps of air, she'd rip him a new one right now. But as it was, at least she wasn't skidding across the rough pavement. That would definitely leave a bruise or fifty at the speed he was going, along with some nice, juicy road rash.
She really needed to learn to appreciate the little things.
Her top half swayed back and forth as he abruptly changed direction without missing a beat. She lifted her head as much as she could and tried to see where they were through her long hair, but it was no use. The stuff was hanging to his calves in a thick curtain, effectively blocking her view, and she couldn't move it out of the way without releasing her grip on the bag.
Unable to do anything for the moment but go along for the ride, her mind wandered back to her recent ah-ha! revelation.
Could it be possible that he was really a vampire? She knew about them, of course, though she'd never actually met one. Her mother had talked openly about them in front of her ever since she could remember. She often warned her about them, telling Grace how charming and convincing they could be when there was something they wanted.