by Alice Brown
“Did I just hear her correctly? Someone is after Stephanie?” Kevin asked, astonished.
While Kevin seemed a little dumbfounded, Marshall immediately jumped up from his seat and grabbed both sets of keys to the Harleys. “Yes, let’s go!”
They were speeding out of the parking lot five seconds later. As Kevin took the lead, he concentrated on deciphering what little bit he could pick up from his wife’s earpiece. It sounded like she was in the middle of a fight. He had no idea what he was going to find when he arrived home, but he was worried. He hadn’t had the time since changing Erica over to show her any self-defense moves. Whatever or whoever was fighting Erica, it was obvious she was trying to keep them away from Stephanie. Who would want their baby? Then it hit him…Gary. In the vampire’s sick mind that would be the ultimate revenge.
*****
Erica knew she was fighting for her and her baby’s life. She realized Gary must have known the earpiece was active because he came back at Erica with such vehemence, she wondered if she could hold him off long enough for help to arrive. He was stronger and had fighting skills she didn’t, which would have put him at a huge advantage if he hadn’t allowed his temper to rule him. Instead of just overwhelming her physically, he hurled insults at Erica while the battle ensued, trying to break her down. If Erica had not been changed, and had not regained her self-confidence since escaping Shawn, she would have crumbled. Instead, she quickly picked up on what he was attempting to do, and blocked everything coming out of his mouth from her head. She chose to concentrate on the fight, knowing she had to stay between him and Stephanie until help arrived. If she went down, he would have her baby.
Initially, Erica was surprised to realize she held the upper hand. Unfortunately, her strength didn’t last very long, and after repeatedly landing punches into one another, Erica quickly began to lose part of her raw strength. The ground they were standing on was quaking, and the trees in which they were throwing each other into were bending and threatening to snap. Gary attempted to rip Erica’s arms from her body, but she countered the move while her mind was racing to think of something—anything—to regain the advantage. She could feel her strength waning as the sun began taking its toll.
Suddenly, without warning, a shadow caught Erica’s eye and she staggered back two steps. Just in time, too. The shadow she had glimpsed was her brand new car sailing through the air, landing upside down on top of Gary. All was still and quiet for a few seconds while Gary was pinned under the car. Hmmm…bet he wasn’t expecting that! Her car began to rock a few seconds later as he pushed it off himself and onto its side. With one final glare back at Erica, he took off. Erica grinned when she realized he was limping and looked a little the worse for wear.
*****
The second Gary was out of sight, Erica ran into the house. Stephanie was perched up on the kitchen table, watching her out the window. A chill went down Erica’s spine when she thought about what her young daughter had just witnessed. She reached for Stephanie, scooping her up in her arms, delighted and shaking with relief that she had been able to keep her baby safe.
Well, she had been able to keep the baby safe with the baby’s help…but she wasn’t going there quite yet. She was overjoyed that Stephanie had not been harmed in any way. Although weak from the sun and the fighting, she took her daughter outside and sat down on the step, her gut telling her Kevin would be arriving soon. Yes, he would be on his way, probably with half the team with him. No sooner had the thought hit her than Kevin and Marshall peeled up the driveway and brought their bikes to an abrupt stop.
*****
Kevin drove his bike for all it was worth, with Marshall racing behind him all the way to the house. They both barreled up the driveway, squealing tires all the way, and laid their bikes down as they ran to help Erica. The first thing Kevin spotted was his wife’s brand new car sitting on its side. The top was caved in, and looked to have an imprint of a body.
Charles came charging up the driveway a mere second later, locking the tires of his Mercedes as he slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. All three of the men ran to Erica and Stephanie, looking around for signs of danger. “Erica, I am so sorry I wasn’t here sooner. I was underground at a council meeting. What in the hell happened?” Charles demanded, looking at Kevin and Marshall, and then to Erica.
“Dad, you took the words right out of my mouth,” Kevin growled in frustration. He knelt down in front of his wife and daughter. Stephanie looked fine, but Erica was definitely feeling the aftereffects of fighting. “Honey, are you okay?” he asked in concern. He was a bit concerned the two of them seemed to be in their own little world, paying little attention to him or Marshall, or even Charles for that matter.
“What exactly did happen?” Kevin asked as he glanced over to Erica’s car, still sitting on its side. He stood quickly, walked over to the crumpled, overturned car, and pushed it back over so it was sitting straight. He would get to the bottom of things soon enough, but in the meantime, there was little use in giving the neighbors anything to speculate about.
Erica waited until Kevin returned from her car to state calmly, “We had an unwanted visitor.” She glanced down at her daughter, who was beaming up at her mother. Erica wrapped her arms around her baby, the enormity of what just happened hitting her hard. “He wanted Stephanie. I was trying to get rid of him, when our daughter decided to take matters into her own hands.” Although she felt like she could spend the next twenty-four hours in the deep freeze, she was absolutely elated that Gary had not been able to get his hands on her baby. Suddenly giddy, Erica clamped a hand over her mouth when a giggle threatened to burst out of her.
All three men stared down at her, bewildered. “I think maybe we should go inside, where you can start at the beginning and tell us everything,” Kevin stated quietly, and Charles nodded in agreement. Stephanie turned in her mother’s arms and held out her hands for Marshall to take her. Once he retrieved the baby, Kevin leaned down to help Erica up.
Chapter Two
After the attempted kidnapping, Kevin stepped up security, hiring three Community Watchmen who rotated shifts to provide security outside the O’Rourke home.
Marshall and Jordan both practically moved in, each having a bedroom so they could help provide personal security for Stephanie and Erica. Charles began developing weapons to be used against rogue vampires. The team realized they could no longer depend on their strength and speed alone to bring down rogues. Soon, Mr. Atkins, Erica, Kevin, and Marshall became involved in his project, and they spent their evenings putting together the new weapons belt Charles had developed.
Charles had watched his granddaughter display a wide, unique, variety of special abilities, including telepathy with animals, telekinesis, and astral projection. He was fascinated with her ability to ‘leave her body’, and in spirit form travel to another place. As far as he knew, she was the only vampire or half-vampire ever to display such a wide variety of unique gifts. He also believed part of her unique gifts came from her mother, Erica. Before being turned, Erica occasionally had premonitory dreams warning her of danger. Now Charles was betting that her precognition abilities had increased dramatically with her change. His gut was telling him that if she concentrated, she would be able to pinpoint someone’s location. He began working on a computer program to extract pictures from Erica’s brain and do a search using the surrounding area that would tell him the possibilities of where that person was located. He hoped it would help them find Gary.
*****
Erica was in her office, enjoying a morning off from mommy duties. Stephanie was over visiting with her Grandpa Charles and Pop Atkins.
Suddenly, through her earpiece, she heard her child inquire, “What is this red button for?” The very next thing Erica heard was Charles trying to control his temper, and having great difficulty doing so.
“No, no! Stephanie, you can’t just go pushing buttons! Oh no, crap! I can't believe this child managed to take the entire main sy
stem down!”
“Here, Charles, let me have her so you can get the system back up,” Erica heard Mr. Atkins say soothingly as he came to the rescue.
“Gentlemen, do I need to come get her?” Erica asked through her earpiece to her father-in-law.
“That might be a good idea, Erica. It is going to take me a little time to get everything back up and on line, and I am finding my mood quickly going downhill,” Charles stated, and Erica could almost see the frown on his face.
“Be right there.” She walked into Charles’s office to see that Mr. Atkins had Stephanie on the other side of the room, keeping her entertained and out of her grandfather’s way. Charles was at the main switchboard, rebooting the entire network.
Charles glanced over to his daughter-in-law and stated, “Leave it to my granddaughter to hit the emergency shutdown button,” he chuckled softly, but was still frowning and shaking his head.
Erica turned and walked over to Stephanie. “I think you have worn out your welcome for the day, little one. Say goodbye, so we can go home.”
The small child suddenly seemed to realize something was very wrong. As her mother was trying to get her out the door, she turned to her beloved grandfather. “Do you still love me, Grandpa?” Erica stopped in her tracks as she glanced first to her child’s face and then over to her father-in-law’s.
“Of course I still love you, honey. You are my granddaughter, and nothing in this world will ever change that, okay?” He stopped working and stood, walking toward them.
Stephanie graced him with a smile. “Okay, so can I come back over with mommy and daddy tonight?”
“Of course you can. Your mommy is going to take you home, and I suspect she’ll fix you lunch soon. But I will see you again tonight, little one,” Charles replied softly as he kissed her forehead gently.
*****
It was the second time trying out Charles’s new software and Erica’s natural ability to “see” someone in her mind that they ran into problems.
“So, are we ready to check this program out?” Erica inquired of Charles as she walked over and hugged him.
“Yes, my girl, I think you are going to be impressed. I have replaced all those stupid electrodes with an earpiece. That way, all we have to do is launch the program before you start the “scene” in your head, and it will send a signal to the earpiece to start downloading the info from your brain. I knew if I worked on it long enough, I’d figure out a way of doing this wirelessly,” Charles chuckled with a huge smile adorning his face as he handed an earpiece to Erica. “Switch out, dear,” he requested.
Erica switched her current earpiece for the new one and sat down next to Charles.
“The program is activated, so anytime you are ready, go ahead,” Charles encouraged. A moment later the computer screen displayed a picture of Gary walking down a street. “Brilliant! See if you can follow him for a couple of seconds, dear. We’ll see if we can get the name of a street or intersection.”
Mr. Atkins and Kevin stood behind Charles, watching him work on his program. He switched to a large monitor on the wall, which gave everyone in the room a larger picture with additional data. It seemed Gary was walking down an anonymous alley; however, Erica was able to continue tracking him. After a couple of minutes, Kevin glanced back to his wife, impressed that she had been able to keep a constant track on him. He now checked his watch and realized she had been at it for four minutes. He glanced back up to see Gary turn out of the alley and move into what looked like a downtown section. Charles immediately started his search on the keyboard and was able to pinpoint his exact location within seconds. He was back in Atlanta, and as Kevin glanced back up to the screen, he noted that Erica was still going strong tracking him. Gary ducked inside a dark doorway, and a few seconds later they watched a human policeman walk down the street.
“I’ll fix his butt,” Kevin stated as he picked up the phone and placed a call to the Atlanta Crime Task Force. Happily, the vampire on duty knew Kevin from his work there months ago, and he relayed Gary’s exact location. “If you catch him, hold him. We’ll be down to pick him up tomorrow morning,” Kevin requested as he hung up the phone.
Kevin glanced back up at the screen to see the picture starting to fade, but by then it had been well over seven minutes. He quickly glanced down to Erica to see her start slumping down in her chair. “Erica, what’s wrong?” he shouted, alarmed, and came to stand in front of her.
Charles had managed to scoot around his son and yanked the earpiece out of Erica’s ear. “Erica, can you hear us?” Charles called out loudly. She was completely unresponsive, and Kevin quickly looked over to Charles for answers.
“I believe she has just exhausted her energy with tracking for that long. This is by far the longest she has ever tracked,” Charles said as he shook his head and frowned. “I’m sorry, Kevin. I should have realized she was pushing it too hard. I suggest you take her home and stick her in the deep freeze for a little while. Call me if she doesn’t come back around in about an hour. I’ll get in touch with Dr. Carlson and get his input.”
Kevin quickly picked up his wife and headed out the door, concerned only for Erica’s safety.
He walked into his house carrying Erica, heading straight for the freezer in her office. He was so thankful he had been able to get one installed only a week ago. Carrying her in, he closed the freezer door behind him, cradling her in his lap, as he sat down on the floor. Charles came across the earpiece a few minutes later.
“Kevin, I got in touch with Dr. Carlson and explained everything that happened. He is in agreement with me, we think Erica just overdid things a bit; there is a good chance she has a built-in mechanism that triggers when she is overdoing it and shuts everything down for a little while. He wanted me to tell you that if she hasn’t come around by the end of an hour, to bring her down,” Charles relayed.
“Okay, thanks, Dad,” Kevin replied, suddenly completely worn out.
“Again, son, I’m sorry. I should have told her to stop. I just wasn’t thinking. I was zeroed in on locating our troublemaker. By the way, the Atlanta group just called, they missed Gary. They have two of their guys hunting for him, but nothing so far.”
“Okay, let me know if something changes,” Kevin replied quietly, still holding Erica tight and praying that she would pull through this. Kevin leaned his head back against the wall of the deep freezer and closed his eyes. He sat up quickly as the freezer door opened a few minutes later.
Mr. Atkins poked his head in the door. “Just checking on Erica before I go home for the evening.”
Kevin glanced down to the woman in his arms and noticed her head moving just slightly. Taking that as a good sign, he replied, “I am hoping a few more minutes in here will bring her around.” He glanced back down, and she did look to be trying to come back around.
“Erica, love, can you hear me?” he inquired as he gently ran a finger down her cheek.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at him questioningly.
“Where are we? What happened?” she asked.
“You were working with dad trying to pinpoint Gary’s location, and evidently you overdid things a little. We think your brain sent a message through the rest of your body and basically just shut everything down for a little while,” he answered.
“How are you feeling?” Mr. Atkins asked from the doorway.
“Tired. I feel like I have been out in the sun for four days straight. The last time I felt this bad was when I was pregnant with Stephanie.”
Glancing back up to Mr. Atkins, Kevin smiled slightly and said, “I think she’s going to be okay, but it might take until morning to get her back up and going.”
“Okay, call me if you need anything, Kevin,” Mr. Atkins replied as he slipped back out the door.
He turned his attention back to his wife. “Can I carry you on up to bed, love?”
She shook her head and had already closed her eyes again. “No thanks, just leave me here, the coolness feels
good,” she whispered as she seemed to be going to sleep.
Kevin gently laid her down on the floor of the freezer and walked out. Flying up the stairs and into the closet to grab an armful of bedding, he quickly stopped at their bed on the way out long enough to grab two pillows. On the way back downstairs, he called for Marshall on the earpiece. “Marshall, you there?”
“Yes, what’s up?” he asked a little anxiously.
“I just wanted to make sure you will be staying tonight. Erica overdid things with Charles this evening, and I’ve have her down in the freezer. I’m going to be spending the night down there with her while she recuperates. I’ll leave the earpiece on, so if you need us, just give a shout out.”
“All’s cool here, bud,” Marshall replied. “Is Erica okay?”
“She should be. She was helping dad work out the bugs on his tracking program, and she was able to lock onto Gary and his whereabouts. She tracked him for at least seven to eight minutes straight before she collapsed. We think she just overdid it,” Kevin responded.
“Okay, if you need anything, let me know,” Marshall replied.
“Thanks, buddy,” Kevin said as he walked back into the freezer. He had a pallet bed made up on the floor for them in no time. He ran back out one last time and into the kitchen for some blood. When he returned, he picked Erica up and carried her over to the makeshift bed and curled up with her, holding her tight. About two hours later, she woke up again. This time she seemed a little bit more aware of her surroundings, and Kevin was able to get her to drink some blood while she was awake. She fell back asleep shortly after, and he held her tightly throughout the night. She woke up twice more, and each time he managed to get her to drink a little more blood. When she woke up at seven the next morning, it was with a smile on her face. Kevin breathed a sigh of relief, she was out of the woods.