Turning around, Leisha put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “They can’t do much with so many people around. It’s a Friday night and we are in the downtown area. We’re safe for the moment.”
Samantha didn’t seem comforted by that, but there was not much else Leisha could do for her. A torrent of emotions flitted across the girl’s face, and Leisha knew no words would make her feel better.
CHAPTER 18
Mason silently cursed to himself while Andres followed the blue Honda. Before today, he had been so sure their plan would work. Andres had been following Leisha and Samantha closely, and they knew it should not be a problem immobilizing Leisha and getting Samantha out. They even put a tracking device in their car just in case Leisha somehow escaped with Samantha.
What they were not prepared for was the man who helped them escape.
“Have you thought of something yet?” Andres asked.
Mason growled with frustration. “I’m still thinking.” He figured they would try and stay in the busy part of the city to keep safe among the tourists. He needed to think of which weapon in his arsenal to use on that creature in such a public setting. Plus, he would probably need to use something on the black man who was with them. Most of his weapons were specifically designed for catching vampires, and he wasn’t sure if the man was a vampire or not. Even if he wasn’t, it could still work on him, although it might also kill him.
“I think maybe we could . . .” Mason didn’t finish his sentence when the blue Honda pulled to the curb in front of a movie theater. “They think they can lose us in the movies?” Mason scoffed. This may be easier than he’d thought. He and Andres had worked together for years doing all kinds of covert operations. They knew how to move through a crowd, but a movie theater would be even better. With most people seated, they could make quick searches and eliminate possibilities.
Andres shared a knowing look as he pulled into a parking spot on the side of the road. “We’ll have your daughter back in no time,” he said with a predatory smile.
Leisha and Tafari were still arguing over their impromptu plan while he bought tickets to a movie. “It should be me,” Leisha said emphatically, trying to keep her voice down. “I am faster than you and can lose them more easily.”
Tafari shook his head and ushered her and Samantha into the dark theater. “No,” he said firmly. Leisha knew that tone too well; he had made up his mind and was not willing to negotiate. “You are still not at your full strength, but you are right about running faster than me. That is why you need to take Samantha to the boat. I will divert them so they are unaware of where you go. I will meet you there in a few hours.”
They had been arguing about whom Samantha would follow ever since they decided that it would be easier to lose their pursuers on foot. Leisha could move faster than a car, and would be able to maneuver more easily on foot. Tafari told them of his boat that was docked near the same beach they went to earlier that day. Once they lost Mason and his cohort, they could sail to Puerto Rico before flying out from there.
Leisha was almost grateful for Mason—it appeared that Tafari would now be taking them with him to the immortals. She pushed away the guilty feeling and focused on what was at hand.
“They do not know me,” Tafari was saying. “They are after you and Samantha. Even if they did catch me, they would have no need of me. You just get Samantha out of here as fast as you can.” He gave her a little push to the back exit, with every expectation of her complying. “By the way, my boat is called The Seeker. I do not think you will have a hard time finding it.”
Tafari took a seat and waited for Mason and his associate.
Grabbing Samantha’s hand, Leisha turned to leave. “Let’s get out of here,” she mumbled. Samantha had a small smile on her lips but remained tactfully quiet. They walked out the exit and into an alley between buildings. “Get on my back, Samantha. And hold tight. You may need to keep your face down. The wind will be very strong.”
Samantha looked a little nervous. “You promise this won’t hurt?” she asked.
Leisha shook her head. “Just keep your head down and tucked into my back. That should prevent any damage to your skin from the high winds.”
Samantha nodded jerkily, clearly not happy about this, and climbed onto Leisha’s back, piggyback style.
Leisha heard a noise and looked to the entrance of the alleyway. The man who had been with Mason was pulling something out of his jacket, heading toward them.
Not wanting to discover what other surprises they had for her, Leisha squatted down before jumping high into the air, soaring for about a hundred yards before lightly landing on the roof of a tall building. She was jumping high and leaping from building to building, enjoying the freedom she always felt when she coasted the sky. Samantha had a death grip around her, panting hard.
Leisha stayed on the roofs for as long as she could to avoid having to navigate through the crowd, which was thinning considerably. They were at the edge of the city now. Leaping, she landed by the freeway and immediately ran along the road, while keeping a good distance from it to avoid running into anyone. It took only twenty minutes to get to the docks. Once there, she stopped to let Samantha down to walk on her own.
The girl was sweating and shaking almost violently, her head tucked against Leisha’s shoulder, her arms still locked around them. Leisha reached up and gently pried her ankles apart. They stiffly came off her waist. Samantha let go with her hands to slide to the ground.
Leisha crouched next to her. “You all right?” She knew her vital signs were just fine, but was not sure if Samantha was able to handle the shock of going that fast.
Samantha jerked her head up and down, and then said through clenched teeth, “I don’t want to do that again. Ever.”
Leisha smiled. She was just fine, indeed. “I thought you liked fast cars and whatnot.”
Samantha opened and closed her hands, which were no doubt cramped from her tight grip. “It’s different when you are sitting comfortably with a seatbelt behind a windshield!”
Laughing, Leisha directed Samantha to stretch out her tight muscles. After ten minutes of stretching, the girl seemed ready to move on. She had stopped shaking, but was beginning to shiver, her sweat turning cold under the sea breeze.
“Let’s get you out of those sweaty clothes and let you relax on the boat, shall we?” Leisha took the girl’s arm and guided her to the docks, looking for the The Seeker. She found it in no time. The Seeker was a large yacht that looked like it could carry twenty people comfortably. Leisha was impressed, and a little excited. The last time she sailed was when she first came to America, and with all of the modern technology available now, sailing would be a much more pleasant experience.
They were twenty feet away from getting on the yacht when she saw someone lean over the side, watching them. Leisha realized too late that there were other immortals on this boat. Tafari had brought backup. She stopped, her hand still on Samantha’s arm.
Leisha forced a smile she was not even sure the immortal could see in the fading light. “Tafari sent me ahead of him,” she said. “He will be meeting us here in about three hours or so.”
The man on the boat scoffed and jumped over the side, landing a few feet away from them. “You think me a fool, vamp?” his tone dripped with disdain.
This man was tall, about six foot five with wide shoulders to support his brawny muscle. His jaw was angular, and his face somewhat puckish; his sensual lips and prominent nose made him look relatively handsome. He glared her down with sage green eyes, as if he was ready for some gruesome murder.
Leisha could feel Samantha tense, her heart beating rapidly. Leisha squeezed the girl’s arm. “It’s okay,” she said. “He won’t hurt you.” She looked pointedly at the menacing immortal. “Will you? You wouldn’t harm an innocent, young girl, right?”
“If she’s with you, then she is far from innocent.” With a slight Scottish brogue in his speech, he must have been a highland warrior of
some sort—he held himself as superior and noble. And with a strapping physique to boot, he was not an immortal to trifle with.
“Look,” Leisha said patiently, “all you have to do is wait for a couple of hours for Tafari to show up and confirm my story. If he doesn’t, then you have plenty of men aboard to take me down and kill me. I hold no threat to you at the moment.”
His scowl could have turned her to stone. “I’m not an idiot. I know you killed him. I warned him that you were just luring him into a trap!” he growled. “He wouldn’t listen to me. Well, at least I can claim vengeance for him.” With that, he lunged forward.
Leisha pushed Samantha to the side and met the charging immortal with a swift kick to his gut. The air whooshed out of his lungs, but it did not stop him. He swung his arm and gave her a blow, nearly taking her head off. Crouching on the ground from the punch, she shot out her leg to trip him. He fell with a big thud, and Leisha flipped herself up into the air, landing on her feet over him. “I don’t need this now, so don’t make me hurt you. I’m trying to be gentle.”
Rage flashed in his eyes as he moved like the wind to grab her swimsuit and tug her down. Before she could react, she was on her stomach with him sprawled atop her, yanking her head back at a painful angle.
Leisha was trying very hard not to fight back; she would have to be on the same boat with these people for a while, and wanted to get along as best as she could.
“Get. Off. Now,” she gasped. It was hard to sound intimidating with her head pulled back so far she could barely speak.
“I think not,” he said in her ear, spraying spittle on her neck.
Leisha bucked him off her and spun before he could topple her again. As he charged toward her, she brought up her foot to kick him again. This time, he was prepared for it, jumping up above it to land directly on her. She spun out of the way and brought herself up into a defensive crouch.
“I don’t want to fight you,” she all but seethed. “You have enough immortals on the boat to outnumber me. Why don’t we just sit tight and wait for Tafari, so he can clear this up for us?”
One of the men watching from the side of the boat spoke up. “Listen to her, Sean. She speaks logically.”
“It’s a trick, nothing more!” Sean growled.
“What if it is not,” another argued. “What if you are defying Tafari’s orders by trying to kill her?”
That seemed to catch Sean’s attention for a moment. His brow furrowed in thought for a few minutes before speaking again. “You give me your word that you will not raise any violence on that boat?”
“I promise that I won’t, except in self-defense,” Leisha said.
Sean stood, watching her for a minute longer before straightening himself. “I will allow you to come aboard if you will allow me to bind you in chains. Just as a precaution, you understand.”
He was trying to sound reasonable, but Leisha saw the mockery in his eyes. He wanted to humiliate her, and she grudgingly admitted to herself she would need to be docile with this Sean until Tafari came back. She could not keep herself from glaring at him; but, she nodded her agreement.
Smiling smugly, Sean gestured for her and Samantha to climb onboard before him. She turned her back on him and kept her hand protectively on Samantha’s shoulder as they walked up the plank.
Once they were onboard, six of the men surrounded them, some holding Uzis, and others machetes. Samantha gasped, backing up into Leisha, who squeezed her shoulder in reassurance. “They won’t hurt you,” she said. “They just have to be cautious. I’m the threat here, not you.”
Samantha nodded but still stayed as close to Leisha as she could.
The man who had called over to Sean approached Leisha, carrying chains that looked like they had been in the water. Leisha assumed the chains must be connected to the anchor. Oh great, Leisha thought, not only do I have to be humiliated by wearing shackles, I also get to smell like fish and seaweed, too.
“My name is Ian,” the man said. “Would you mind sitting over there while I get you situated?” He had the same accent and build as Sean, though not quite so tall—about six foot three—his hair lighter. The two men were definitely related; they shared the same sage green eyes and angular face.
Leisha nodded and walked to the seat he had gestured, toward the stern.
Ian worked the chains from her shoulders all the way down to her ankles, pulling tight to leave no wriggle room. Leisha gritted her teeth as the chains pinched against her skin. It almost felt like a form of torture, but Ian was being polite, and she did not want to push her luck. It was going to be a long voyage.
“At least someone on this boat is nice,” Samantha muttered, watching Ian.
Ian glanced at her as he put a lock over the chains on Leisha’s ankles. “Don’t you be thinkin’ anything good of me, lass. I would be more than pleased to decapitate your friend here, but I respect my leader and I’ll be waitin’ on his orders.”
Leisha hoped Samantha would say no more. If the girl continued to offend him, he would lose more than control over his accent. Samantha crossed her arms and glared at all of the men as she sat next to Leisha, saying nothing.
The men drifted off to different areas on the sailboat and waited in silence for almost an hour. Samantha continued to look to the docks, biting her nails all the while. Leisha studied the men as they worked. All of them seemed to be in low spirits, probably because they thought Tafari was dead. Even so, they continued with their work as a team alongside each other, each man understanding exactly what his duty was.
Sean murmured something to one of his comrades, and then sauntered over to Leisha, putting his foot up on the rail, resting his elbow on his knee. “Looks like he’s not going to show.” He smiled cruelly. “I knew you to be a liar. All of you vamps are the same. I am sorry for Tafari, but I must say he was a fool to think he could trust you.”
“He doesn’t trust me, but he knows a good opportunity when he sees one.”
Sean scoffed. “I cannot imagine what you have to offer him. He’s not into slut vamps who whore themselves for blood.”
Leisha’s blood rose to a boil, and it took all of her effort to restrain herself from breaking the chains so she could beat the man to a pulp. She knew there was no use in trying to defend herself to him, and kept her mouth clamped shut.
He chuckled and then gave another one of his smug smiles. “What’s the matter there, vamp? Don’t like it when I call a spade a spade?” He straightened. “I am going to enjoy slaughtering you. It is going to be a long and painful death. That’s what you deserve for killing Tafari. He was one of our best.” He had positioned himself so close to Leisha that she had to strain her head to keep eye contact. “First, I think I’ll start with the skin. I’ll peel it off one layer at a time all over your entire body. Then I’ll poke around with your ligaments. That, I hear, is supposed to be excruciating.”
Samantha made a gagging sound and bent over the rail.
Leisha glared at Sean. “It has not been three hours yet, moron. And even if the time is up, the least you could do is spare the girl. She doesn’t live the way we do. She is completely innocent.”
He was studying Samantha, who was now sitting back against the rail, her eyes watering, her lower lip quivering. “You may be right about her,” he admitted. “But I don’t care if it has not been three hours yet, it’s been long enough and I know he’s not comin’ back.”
He grabbed a fistful of chains at Leisha’s chest and hauled her up. “You are nothin’ but scum to me,” he growled before pulling his head back slightly and spitting in her face.
Leisha’s temper came to an all-time high. She closed her eyes and mustered all of the strength in her to push against the chains with her arms. They finally broke from her strain, though it taxed heavily on her energy, her body shaking from the effort. She had no time to free her legs since Sean was standing so close to her.
The immortal looked stunned when the chains broke. Leisha seized the moment an
d punched him in the nose with the heel of her hand, cramming fractured bones into his brain. The blow would have killed a human, but not an immortal. It only detained him a little.
She stooped, sliding the chains down her legs and off her feet. Sean was coming to as she crouched over him and flipped him onto his stomach, yanking her right arm firmly around his neck while bending his left arm behind him at a painful angle.
Leaning close to his ear, she said, “I have put a lot of effort into being civil.” She enunciated each word precisely. “But you have done everything in your power to antagonize me. So, what should we do about it? I have no problem killing you since you’re just begging for me to do it, but I’m still willing to forgive you if you will just let me be until Tafari arrives.”
“Why would Tafari be comin’?” He rasped through the blood that poured into his mouth. “I know you killed him just like you’re going to kill me. You are what you are, demon monster, don’t pretend anything else with me.”
“Leisha!” shouted a voice.
Leisha looked up to see Tafari standing at the entrance of the boat, his silvery blue eyes sparkling, his nostrils flared. Immediately letting go of Sean, she backed up. “It’s not what you think,” she started.
“I do not want to hear it.” His body was shaking with contained violence.
Leisha looked away from his gaze and kept her face expressionless. She did not want Tafari to keep seeing her at her worst, but his timing seemed impeccable for it.
Sean got up to his feet, swaying slightly. “Tafari,” he grunted. “I thought you were dead.”
Tafari took a long breath and exhaled, tension building in his lungs. “Far from it, Sean. I hope you were not provoking our temporary ally here.”
As Sean stopped and looked back at Leisha—she suppressed a smile. He turned back to Tafari. “She really is to come with us, sir?”
Tafari sighed, suddenly appearing quite weary. “Yes. We will be sailing to Puerto Rico tonight, and from there we head home.”
Dissension Page 17