“KILL HIM!” Julian screamed.
Dante roared and clicked his neck twice. Alex had seen this before. He was ready for battle, ready for certain death as the vampires charged.
“Wait!”
Everything stopped. Alex surprised even herself.
“How dare you, bitch? You have no say here,” Julian snapped.
Alex trembled from head to foot.
“Now now, Julian, let us not be rude. Let us see what she has to say for herself,” Vincent called, unable to disguise his curiosity.
“I am Dante’s human… I mean his donor,” Alex said.
Vincent’s face fell. “What?”
“You—you said that if he didn’t have a human…or if he didn’t submit to you, he would be killed. Well I—I volunteer to be his human.”
“No!” Dante cried, “Alex, I don’t want this for you.”
Alex’s shoulders trembled as she succumbed to tears. “Dante, please…”
“A wonderful offer, but not enough to save him,” Julian spat.
“Julian, enough. Do not presume to speak for me.” Vincent said as he rose and marched down the steps.
“What? You’re just going to let him walk?” Julian screamed.
“It’s over. If you speak again, I will have you removed from this room,” Vincent growled.
“Bullshit! What about his punishment?”
Vincent whirled on Julian and gestured to Michelle, still on the floor. “He has paid for the laws he broke. He had no human and still denied us. This was punishable by death. Now thanks to this…” he said, generally flicking his hand in Alex’s direction. “He has a new human and does not have to submit to our ways of feeding. That is the law.” Vincent continued to glower at Julian, who skulked reluctantly out of the room. “Now, it is almost dawn, I suggest we retire.”
Everyone took this as more an order than a suggestion and dispersed, taking the girl with them and leaving only the humans and Dante.
Dante closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Michelle sat silent, head down, oblivious to all that had taken place. Dante took a moment and then picked Michelle up in his arms. “Let’s get out of here,” he said.
Alex followed him towards the foyer.
“Could you please collect Michelle’s things?” Dante asked. “They’re still in the room.”
“Of course,” Alex replied.
Dante left with Michelle and Alex dashed up the stairs. She still had not processed what she had just done. What is this going to mean for me? For Dante and Michelle?
She began stuffing Michelle’s belongings into her bag, when a chill came over here. She was not alone in the room. Turning, she saw Melina in the doorway, staring at her. Has she been waiting for me? There was an agonising silence and as it went on, Alex registered again the fact that Melina had not uttered a single word at any stage of the proceedings.
Alex had no idea what to do. Call for help? Walk past her? Say hi?
And just like that, Melina swept gracefully into the room, her soft velvet covered voice seemed to carry on wind currents to Alex’s ears. “Are you not afraid?”
“Should I be?” Alex asked.
“I must congratulate you on your cunning,” Melina said, again after a long pause. Alex concentrated on how light her voice was, the complete opposite to Dante, yet both had the similar effect of being powerfully soothing, or unnaturally jittering. “Using one of his few weaknesses against him.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Alex said.
Moving faster than Alex would ever be used to, Melina had a finger in front of her face, the tip of which was moist. Melina had caught a single tear running down Alex’s cheek. “It is perhaps his greatest weakness, one that I myself experienced before my mortal life ended, when I knew him as Alejandro. He could’ve still fought the guards. He would’ve been killed, so would you. He would say it’s better than being his donor. But you begged him. He never could stand to see a woman he cared about cry.”
“Why would you call that a weakness? Kindness is not a weakness.”
“What do you know of kindness?” Melina asked, voice heavy with condescension.
“More than you,” Alex retorted.
“Oh yes? Enlighten me.”
“You are just as lost as the rest of us. You are with the sickest, most vile thing I have ever seen, and you let go of a guy that would’ve died just for the chance to be with you. Even for a vampire, that is pathetic. Dante is devastated because he lost Michelle and she was the closest thing he got to the love he felt for you. She was the best thing in his life and you sat there and just listened as the king passed that despicable ruling. But you don’t care. You didn’t speak! I think the question is, what do you know of kindness?”
Melina suddenly grew angry. “Such bravery for one so young. And fragile. How do you think the human got to him in the first place?”
Alex became suddenly alert. “Wait. It was you that made sure she was sent to Dante?”
“It was,” Melina replied. “I made arrangements for the news to get out that a young girl was in need of a vampire. The news only went to one person. The next day she was off to him.”
Alex tapped the floor with the toe of her shoe. “Why are you telling me this?”
“It doesn’t matter. Listen to the story and learn from it. Do not make the same mistake she did. He will never love you. Being with Alejandro will only cause you pain.”
“Why did you give Michelle to him if you hate him so much?”
“Because it made sense. She could not venture into the outside world as she knew too much. Yet she had served her purpose to Julian. Alejandro loves your kind for some reason. It was a perfect fit.”
Quick and heavy footsteps, coming up the main hallway stairs halted their conversation.
Alex looked, Melina didn’t. Dante had entered the room. “I was wondering what took you so long,” he said, looking from Alex’s face to Melina’s back. “Everything all right?”
*
Alex nodded, took the bag with Michelle’s things and walked out the door with it. Dante moved across to the window. He had no idea what to say, what to do, or even if he should. He had Melina there with him, the moment he had thought about for over a century. Yet all he could think about was Michelle.
Melina slowly approached. “They will do anything for you, won’t they Alejandro? One is taken from you, another takes her place, just like that,” she said, snapping her fingers.
“That’s not my name anymore,” Dante said.
“It is when you’re with me. I am the only one that knew you by that name.”
“You never knew me at all,” he said, turning to face her briefly before looking out the window again. “You never cared to.”
“I knew you. Better than you could ever imagine. You were the one who gave up.”
Dante watched Alex leave the house and get into the passenger side of the car. “If I recall correctly, you were the one who walked. I suggest you do what you do best and walk again. I think I hear Julian looking for his cock pump.”
Melina moved closer to him, ignoring the previous comment, speaking as if recanting a memory. “You know, sometimes the reason a woman runs, is not because they want to leave. It’s to see if they are valued enough to be chased.”
“Congratulations, I’m sure Julian would chase you to the ends of the earth.”
“But not you,” she stated softly.
“Not me,” he agreed.
“Does that mean Julian loves me…and you never did?” she whispered.
Dante turned around and slowly reached his hand up, using his fingers to caress those soft, pale cheeks. Surprisingly, she let him. He had half hoped she would swat his hand away. It would make things so much easier if she didn’t want him to touch her. “And there are times—” he whispered, staring into her sparkling eyes. The ones he had visualised every day for over two hundred and fifty years. Neither blinked, neither moved. The both of them gave the other the full effec
t of the vampire stare, the one that turns humans into mush. They both began to tremble. “Times when a man stands still because he waits for someone to walk beside him. To respect him. To let him know there is no need for games and bullshit. No chasing, no tests. To look him in the eye and say I love you. If it is the truth, nothing else matters.”
The silence stretched on for several heartbeats, but neither said anything more. With a sigh, Dante crossed the room and left Melina behind.
Chapter Thirty One
Where Do We Go From Here?
Alex drove casually through the empty streets. Streetlight after streetlight silently flicking by.
“Are you ok?” Alex asked Dante.
“I’m fine,” Dante said quickly. There was both truth and lie in those words. He wasn’t worried about himself, he was worried for the two women in the car. Michelle had remained silent since the ruling by Vincent. He didn’t know if she was asleep or too emotional to speak.
“Why did you do it, Alexandra?” Dante asked.
“I couldn’t let you die like that. It’s basically my fault you were there in the situation anyway.”
“It wasn’t. It was mine. The choices I made were my own.”
“And so were mine. Why do you sound so angry?”
“I’m not angry, I just don’t understand.”
“Maybe I didn’t fancy the idea of getting eaten alive after you were ripped to shreds. Maybe I thought if you lived, you could protect us. Maybe I just want to keep you around because I care.”
“You have a perfect right to decide how to live your life, but this is a huge thing for you to take on. I wish you had thought it through.”
“I didn’t have time to think it through!” Alex sounded thoroughly annoyed. “All I knew is I didn’t want you to die and I thought of a way to prevent it. So I did.”
Though Alex tried to sound as casual as she could, Dante could hear a sense of unease as she confessed, “I really don’t know what to do now.”
“Neither do I. Everything was clear two days ago. Funny how that can change.”
“Ok well, seeing as though neither of us know what to do, how’s about we start off slow?”
“All right.”
“Where are we going?”
“To Michelle’s. She needs sleep.”
“Would you like me to stay with her?”
Dante thought about it for a minute and then nodded. “Until she gets back on her feet. If you could, that would be appreciated. Call me for anything you need.”
Alex pulled up at Michelle’s apartment. Alex grabbed Michelle’s bag and headed toward the building. Dante went to open the back door but Michelle had already done it and stepped out.
“Please don’t come up,” Michelle said, looking beyond him and heading off.
Dante stared after her for a few seconds as he shut the car door. Alex saw him wavering slightly on his feet.
“Dante?”
Alex grasped him as he leant against the car for support. “My god,” said Alex, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Dante groaned, pressing his thumb into his temple. “I just haven’t fed in a few…hours.”
“Oh,” Alex said, followed by a deeper understanding. “Ohhhh….”
Dante shook his head, clearing the cobwebs. “It’s just hitting me now. I’ll be fine. I just need to rest.” He gently took Alex’s arm. “Please take care of her tonight. She may fight it, but she needs someone.”
“I will.” Alex nodded firmly and turned toward the door of Michelle’s building again.
“Alexandra…”
Alex turned to him, looking worried and a little afraid.
“I will never forget what you have done for us tonight,”
She nodded tightly and followed Michelle inside. Dante hated the idea that she’d soon need to submit to his feeding.
*
“I’ve brought dinner,” said Margaret, when Alex answered Michelle’s door two days later. The three of them sat down to eat and chat a bit when the phone rang. Alex grabbed it. “Hello?”
“Is this Alexandra Hensley?”
“Yes, who is this?”
“My name is Robyn Tulley and I am calling from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. I am terribly sorry to call you so late, but we have had a…situation.”
“I’m sorry?”
“It is regarding Matthew Carrington.”
“Matt? What about him?”
After a brief pause, the woman cleared her throat. “It would be better if this were conducted in person. Can you come down here right away?”
*
Alex was afraid she hadn’t heard the detective correctly. “What do you mean you can’t find him? How do you lose someone in a hospital this big?”
“There was a three minute blackout at the hospital last night. The generators kicked in, but they are designed to power emergency medical equipment first and foremost. Door locks and surveillance cameras are not prioritised. No one noticed he was missing for at least twenty minutes.”
“Ok. But I’m sorry, I don’t know what you need from me?”
“From what we understand, he was your boyfriend?
“Ex.”
The detective nodded and made a note. “His injuries prevented him the ability to walk?”
“Yes…that’s correct.”
“Do you know how he got that way, Miss Hensley?”
“I made a statement to the hospital when he was admitted.”
“Yes, we’ve read that, but it was vague. We were hoping you could clarify a few things. Like what happened that caused his spinal cord to be completely dismantled the way it was.”
“Like I said, he was attacked by a gang.”
“They must have been very strong.”
“Obviously.”
The detective made a note, and when he spoke again, his tone had changed. Alex imagined this must be his detective voice. “Why do you believe he was attacked, Miss Hensley?”
“How would I know? Maybe they wanted his money?” Alex tried not to sound defensive.
“He still had his wallet, cash and cards on him when admitted. They are still here in the hospital’s patient belongings area. It seems the assailants just wanted to hurt him.”
Alex swallowed. “I guess they did.”
“Would your ex-boyfriend have enemies, Miss Hensley?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you remember the name Ryan Teeran by any chance? You must, seeing as though you were seeking his arrest at one stage for holding your friend against her will.”
“Yes…what about him?”
“His body was found in his apartment, Miss Hensley, brutally murdered. Were you aware of that fact?”
Alex gulped and shook her head, knowing she was a terrible liar.
“You don’t seem surprised.”
Alex thought she could answer that honestly enough. “I’m not. Ryan was a low life.”
“I see. And the whereabouts of your friend?”
“She’s dead,” Alex replied. She knew by the looks on their faces and the conviction in her voice, she had caught them off-guard. Unfortunately for Alex, in her heart, it was true. The fact Lauren was walking around meant nothing. Her friend was gone.
“Miss Hensley, I think you know more than you’re letting on. The man you accused of kidnapping your friend was murdered around the same time you made your claims. You say your friend is dead, but we have no body. Your ex-boyfriend was critically injured, his body appearing to have been severely mangled, yet the perpetrators took nothing from him, content to let him suffer. A month later we find he has disappeared from his very hospital room. He had no ability to walk, which meant those that came must have had to carry him in some fashion, but no one has seen anything. How did they get in and out?” The detective put down his pencil and pad. “Off the record, if you’re afraid of something, Miss Hensley, or of someone, we can help you. If you’re protecting someone, you’ll go down with them.”
Alex
remained silent. What could she say that he would believe? What could she say that he could even help with?
The detectives each gave her their cards, and promised to call in a few days. Alex went into Matt’s hospital room and crossed her arms. What the hell had happened here? Had Lauren come back? No one had mentioned her at the estate. What reason would she have to hurt Matt again? Ordered to do so in case Matt talked? She had done enough. Another vampire? Maybe Julian? But if so, why? To get to Alex, to Dante?
Just then, Alex felt a warm, strong presence behind her.
“I came as soon as I heard. Are you all right?”
“Why is it whenever I am in trouble, you’re there?” Alex asked.
“Sixth sense maybe. Or a phone call from your mother, whichever,” Dante said with a sad smile. “Truthfully I would rather see you in happier circumstances. Is there anything I can do?”
Stay. “Not really. You’re looking a lot better.”
“Thank you.”
“How, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I fed.”
Dante cleared his throat and managed to pull out the just enough of the contents of his pocket. Alex saw the top of a crushed and empty plasma bag.
“I made a detour on my way up. Last thing either of us needed was police asking more stupid questions about the way I looked. It wasn’t my first choice believe me, it tastes like witch’s brew.”
Alex snorted. Even though it was irrational, she was glad that Dante hadn’t actually fed off anyone else.
“Do you have any idea who could have done this?” Alex asked.
“No,” Dante said. “But if we are going to find out we had better get started.”
“How are we going to do that exactly?”
Dante moved over to Matt’s bed. He looked it over carefully, taking everything in. The machinery, the walls, his chart, even the ceiling. “Hmm,” he said, lowering his head towards the bed, sniffing.
“What is it?”
Dante extended the nail of his forefinger and tore a piece of bed sheet off with it. “This,” he said, holding it up.
Alex squinted at the torn scrap of material. “What about it?”
Night Walker (Undeadly Secrets Book 1) Page 26