by Dawn Gray
I walked straight out the door and pulled my motorcycle out of its hiding place behind the bushes. After getting on, I secured the helmet on and looked over at the door as I started the engine. What had I just done in there? I didn't have the time to think about it, I had other things to worry about.
When I stopped at the gas station, filled up my gas tank and paid, I noticed a small park across the street, where children were playing, on the swings, the see-saws, and on the monkey bars. They had no clue as to what was around them, who was around them, but as I watched, leaning on my bike, from where I stood across the street, I saw a little boy, about five, look up at me at me and stare. He stepped closer as if he weren't afraid, and he stood by the fence smiling at me, until a hand fell on his shoulder and he looked up at the man behind him.
I also looked up at this man and my eyes widened as I stared, for he was a man who had saved my life, but could also be my killer. Isaac Cain stood across the street, smiling at me. I quickly stood up, walked over behind the gas station and stood there for a moment. Isaac had followed me, probably because Jacob had told him where to find me, but he was there just the same.
I sighed and turned to walk back around the building but looked up at Isaac instead. He stood there, with his hands folded in front, and watched me.
"You shouldn't be here." I told him as I tried to walk by. "This is very dangerous.”
"You are the one that shouldn't be here, Angel. Jacob knows about your Grandfather and his family. He wants you all destroyed."
"I don't want to stand here and play your game, Isaac." I said looking up at him. "Please, don't make me hurt you."
"You hurt me every time you leave, what makes you think that now is different." He asked quietly and released my arm. I looked at him one last time before I shook my head and walked around the building. I got on my bike, started it up and glanced over at the edge of the building. Isaac stood there, with his arms cross and his right shoulder leaning on the building. He looked at me from under his blond curls, his blue eyes sparkling. I replaced my helmet and drove away, those piercing blue eyes still in my mind's vision.
The operator on the other end of the phone patched me through to a female voice on the other end. I closed the phone booth doors securely, and then leaned against the glass.
"Hello?" The voice said sweetly.
"Hey, Cec." I smiled at the picture that I got in my head of my friend sitting on her bed, which was full of stuffed animals. "It's Angel, what's up?"
"Angel, where the hell are you?" Cecilia asked me. My best friend since high school was always worried about things.
"Hey, look, I'm fine." I smiled and looked around. "I'm up north."
"Where up north?" She asked, and then her voice seemed to grow excited. "Did you find him?"
"Yeah, him and Julian."
"So, can I come up and visit?"
"This isn't they're real home, Cec. They're staying with a friend. I don't think that would be such a great idea, not that Quinn wouldn't want to see you."
"What about the man in black?"
"He's not here, but I had another dream about him, and I saw his face so I'll know what he looks like."
"Maybe he's not all that bad. Maybe, he's a guardian."
"Aw, great. That's all I would need is a guardian following me around." I sighed and looked around as my eyes filled with tears. "The hunters are here, Cec." I said and choked back the tears as I regained myself. "They've followed me, again, and I'm thinking of leaving."
"No, Angel, that would be a bad idea, you need to stay with your grandfather, he'll protect you, you're the last of his line."
"No, that's not true, Cec. He's got Jacob's line and Julian." I sighed and looked around me. "Look, Cec, I've got to go. I'll call you later, okay?"
"Yeah, well make sure you do." she said and hung up the phone suddenly, which was what she always did. I sighed, glanced at the phone quickly and hung up. With a look around, I walked over and jumped on the bike, gunned the motor and headed for wherever the tires took me.
3
When I stopped the bike, I climbed off and walked over to the fence that separated me from the water of the small lake in front of me. I closed my eyes as I tangled my fingers into the fence. What was I thinking coming all this way to see my grandfather? I probably only brought with me trouble that he didn't need. Namely, me. I reached into the pocket of my black leather coat and found and envelope that I had placed there not all that long ago. It was a letter, written when I was younger to me from my mother, explaining to me just who and what I was and why I had to be so careful, but as her voice filled my mind, the horrid sight of her death made me tremble and quickly I folded the paper and tucked it away.
The knack for having images that disturbed me pop into my head at any given time made me sigh and long for a more normal life. I enjoyed it better when it was Cecilia and I, and all we had to do was lie on her bed and dream the night away by thinking about Isaac and the mystery man in black from my dreams.
He had scared Cecilia, when I first told her about him, for we weren't sure of his nature and we didn't know if he was a bad guy or a good one. I guess that one was answered last night, when he came to me in a dream to tell me not to go in that door, whichever door that might be.
I had never really understood the whole thought association thing, like what a door really meant in a dream, because it usually didn't mean a door. All I knew was how to control them, most of the time, except when the man in black was in them. I was tired, hadn't slept in a while and my eyes started to drift closed as I sat there looking at the sky.
I smiled when my eyes opened and I was in a dream place. I looked around the small club that we had walked into, this brown haired girl and I. The man greeted us warmly, from behind the counter, and I laughed as we walked by several pairs of sleeping people, all curled up in sleeping bags, and made our way into the main part of the bar.
We sat at a large table and looked at the man with the wavy, long, dark brown hair. He smiled back at us as pointed to the box of stone figurines. He asked us to pick out ones that would most likely fit us. I found nothing that seemed to stick out at me. While I searched, he seemed to sculpt a white dragon out of wax, this made me laugh because he did it in less than a minute and the dragon was flawless.
As I worked with clay trying to figure out what I might want to make, he and the girl took off and walked around the bar. Another girl walked up to me and smiled.
"You have to be careful." She told me. I looked up at her from my clay and smiled.
"I'm being careful." I replied as I continued to work.
"I mean with the others." She replied. This made me look at her again and put the clay down.
"What others?" I questioned.
"You know which ones, Angel. Isaac won't stay away long, you must be on your guard, even though he's on your side, he has to do things that his grandfather tells him to."
"I know that, that's why I'm trying to get him to stay away. Why won't he listen to me?"
"Move away from her." A voice said sternly. The girl looked up at the man who stood beside me and she moved out of the seat. "I told you never to contact her, never to go near her."
"Wait a minute." I sad and stood up, then I faced this man in black, my “friend” from another dream. "Who the hell are you to tell me who can and cannot talk to me. This is my dream buster!"
"Think again." He said and grabbed my arm. The club turned dark and he pulled me away, out of the growing violence that was once a peaceful room. He stood outside with me, still holding my arm, as he looked back at the nightclub. "Listen to me, you have to wake up. It's too dangerous here. I told you to not go in there."
"That was the last dream." I told him. I looked into his dark eyes.
"It's all the same." He replied and released my arm. "Here," he said and pulled out the black knife again. He placed it in my hand and closed it tightly. "Hang on to this, even if it's only in your dreams, carry it with you, it w
ill help." He looked back at the building as it filled up with flames. "Wake up." He said and grabbed my shoulders. "Wake up, now!"
My eyes flew open and I struggled to catch my breath. When I finally calmed down enough to relax again, I was standing by my bike, holding on to the handles. I hated dreams, especially the kind that try to kill you. I needed to talk to someone, I needed to speak to someone sane. Slowly, as I looked all around me for someone to jump out at me, I climbed on my bike and adjusted the helmet. I stuffed the crumpled letter into my pocket and then took off back into town where I parked my bike by a mini-mart and walked around trying to find a payphone.
I stood on my bike in the center of town, looking up at the entrance of a cemetery when I heard other motorcycles from a distance heading my way. I scurried across the street and hid behind a pillar that was large enough to cover me as they drove by and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a payphone.
I stood looking out over the edge of a mountain that looked down on the lake not far below. I wiped the tear from my face and then turned and looked behind me as I heard the engines of cycles getting closer to me. I watched as ten bikes pulled up and surrounded me. One of the riders got off the bike and pushed up his helmet. It was Isaac, my own personal hunter. He smiled at me as I stood looking around at the fact that I had nowhere to go. He pulled a stake out of his coat and twirled it like a baton.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" He asked and smiled at me. I laughed and crossed my arms.
"Get over the theatrics, Isaac." I told him and sighed. "What do you want?"
"That's a very dumb question, Angel." He smiled and I watched as the others got off their bikes and pulled out stakes as well.
"Oh, shit." I said and sighed, uncrossing my arms and putting my hands up to block any attacks. What had I gotten myself into this time?
I took a deep breath and looked at the ten men that surrounded me. I hadn't had enough strength in days to manipulate time or space, and I certainly couldn't get it now. I backed up, into my own bike and tried to concentrate on something to do, when I heard it. I thought I was hearing things, but when another black bike appeared out of the clearing close by, I knew that I wasn't dreaming. How many of them did they need to kill little old me? However, this bike didn't stop next to them. It parted the crowd and stopped right in front of me, between the hunters and me, and the driver looked at me.
"Get on!" He yelled, looking at me through the black visor.
"What?" I hollered at him. "I'm not going with you, I don't even know you." I explained to him.
"Look, I'm trying to save your life here." He told me and grabbed my arm. I looked at the ten hunters and then at the fact that I would never be on my own bike and gone before they caught me, so I jumped on the back of his black bike and wrapped my arms around his waist as he sped off in the direction of the sun, blinding them to where we had gone.
It was only about two in the afternoon when we stopped. The hunters were pretty far behind and I had no real idea where the two of us were. When he stopped the bike completely, it was in a small clearing just off the main road, but hidden by the trees. I jumped off before he had a chance to turn the engine off and put my hands on the side of my head. I just paced for a moment, thinking about the stupid thing that I had just done, leaving with a complete stranger.
"Who are you?" I asked, stopping in the middle of my pacing and I looked at him. He flipped up the visor and I looked into his brown eyes, there was something quite familiar to me about them. He laughed and pulled off his gloves.
"I'm the man who just saved your ass.” He said and reached under to unhook the strap that was under his chin. I nodded and smiled.
"Great, I'm alone with Mr. freaking Sarcastic." I said and looked at the sky. "Really, a name would be nice."
"My name is Jason Finn." He said and sighed as he slipped off the helmet. "And, I'm not sarcastic, just opinionated."
"YOU!" I shouted as my world went fuzzy and I landed on my butt.
I looked at him again as my eyes cleared and I realized that he gotten off the bike and was squatted down in front of me, to see if I was all right. I couldn’t breathe as I came to terms with the fact that I was looking into the face of the man from my dreams, the man in black that had been haunting me for the last few months.
"What are you doing in my dreams?" I asked, trying to stand up. He grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet. When I regained my composure, I walked right up to him and looked in him the eyes. "Better yet, what are you doing out of my dreams?"
"Saving your life." He whispered to me.
"And, what kind of name is Finn! You certainly don't look Irish." I snapped. He looked at me in frustration and then sighed.
"My father is Irish-American and my mother is of Cuban decent." He said quietly, never loosing his cool.
"Ah, ha." I said and sighed.
"As far as everything else goes, I was asked to protect you and that's what I've been doing for the last year." He replied.
"So, who asked you to protect me?" I asked him and stood up. He looked up at me from where he sat on the ground, looking no older than twenty. He shook his head and smiled cutely.
"That I couldn't really tell you." He replied and stood himself. I looked at him and then crossed my arms. He shrugged with his arms out and caught me in the eyes. "They don't tell me who hires me, they just tell me where to go and who to watch, but if it's going to bug you that much, I can tell you this much, whoever wants you protected has a lot of money to do it with."
"So, you're just here to protect me, and that's it?" I asked him. He leaned against his bike and crossed his arms as he nodded. "Tell me, Jason, have you ever been in my house before, I mean, out of my dreams?"
"More than likely. I can't stay a figment of your imagination all of the time and still keep the hunters away from you." He smiled but it faded when I closed my eyes and looked away. "Angel, I'm sorry about your mother. I tried to save her, but I got there too late."
"You tried to save my mother?" I asked him and looked at the trees. "My mother wouldn't have needed saving if my grandfather had never been born." I yelled and walked away, then turned around and walked back, stepping up to Jason. I stood less than a foot away from his face. "Why didn't you just let me die?"
"Angel." He said and looked me straight in the eyes. "Even if you wanted to, I couldn't have let you die."
"Why? Would you have lost all of your money?" I asked and stepped back. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him. "They're coming, you know. It won't be long until they're here." I said softly and put a hand on his chest. He released my arm and nodded, then grabbed his helmet and handed it to me. "Are you taking me back to the mansion?"
"No, it's too far and the hunters will be waiting there when we get back." Jason said and got on the bike. He started the engine and looked at me. "I'm going to take you to a safe place, and then in the morning I'll take you home."
"But, my grandfather will be worried." I said as I slipped on the helmet and climbed on the back of the bike. As I wrapped my arms around him, a wave of familiarity went through my body and that's when I knew that my body trusted him, even though my mind still wasn't sure.
"I'll call my contacts when we get there and they'll let Quinn know that you're fine and in good hands." He said as we sped off onto the road and headed off to the north.
4
When Jason stopped the bike, he slipped off, turned and looked at me. I watched him take off the helmet to look me in the eyes.
"I want you to know one thing, before we go in there."
"Yeah, what's that? I can't say vampire or everyone will scream?" I asked him.
"Now, who's the sarcastic one?" He asked me, then shook his head. "No, I want you to know that I don't want to hurt you and I won't if you behave."
"Oh, so now you’re threatening me?" I asked him.
"No, but you do have a habit of getting on people’s nerves and I don't want to be mean, but I will tie you up if I have too." H
e smiled at me. I got off the bike and handed him the helmet, shoving it at him.
"Ooh, so you like it rough, huh?" I asked him and walked over to the building we had stopped in front of. I was looking at a large stone building that looked as though it had been once an old factory. Jason walked the bike into the main gate and then grabbed my hand after he had the bike standing on its own. With one hand firmly holding mine, and the other holding the keys to the bike, he led me down a long hallway. It occurred to me suddenly that this was almost the place in my dreams because as we continued to walk, we went down a wide staircase that led to the basement. Once down in the basement, with the lights on I could see that it was half-flooded with water, on either side, where the walkways were, were large columns almost five feet thick, and round.
It looked like some old sanctuary from a gothic movie, but then as Jason lead me through another door, I could tell that this as a safe place. He said hello to the doorman and brought me up some more stairs to a large wooden door, which creaked open when he pushed it. I was looking at an apartment-sized suite and was left to look it over as he made a phone call. When he came back, minus his black leather jacket, I could see his muscular arms quite well. He was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt that was very tight on him. I was staring, taking in every inch of him and he caught me.
"There's a shower in the other room if you want to use it and the desk is sending up some clothes for you." He said and looked me in the eyes. I turned away quickly and nodded to him. "You don't have to be afraid, Angel."
"What!" I snapped at him, wanting to be stronger than I really was. I walked up to him, stood about five feet away and looked at him as if he were nuts. "I'm not afraid."
"Oh, bullshit." He said calmly and stepped away, going over to the small refrigerator and stopping. He looked right at me when he turned towards me. "I can feel things, I can feel you."