Blood & Roses: Warriors of the Krieger

by Theresa Hissong

  “Yes,” I snapped.

  Ashby cleared his throat before he continued, “What are the charges?”

  “Sexual assault,” I growled. “The date of the attack was the year 1745.”

  I heard Ashby gasp as he put together the pieces, Charity’s behavior at the hospital, her missing information on her citizenship form, and my calling for the warrant.

  “Tell the judge that if he doesn’t have the paperwork signed by sunrise, I will have to queen override his authority and I will deliver the punishment myself,” I demanded.

  “How about I just forget to call the judge, or say he never returned my call?” Ashby growled on the other end of the phone.

  “It’s very tempting, but I have to do things the right way. Please do not let this get out. I don’t think she can handle it.”

  “You know I will keep it between us,” he paused. “How is she doing?”

  “She’s scared and upset. I’m going to stay here with her. Call me when the warrant is issued.”

  My next call was to the hospital. I spoke with Nurse Alice and told her to keep him heavily sedated. That way there would be no way Richard could run away until we could find him.

  Charity was not in the bed when I walked back into the room. The shower was running and I could hear her bathing quietly. I was torn between going in there and checking on her, or waiting for her until she was done.

  I sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her to emerge from the bathroom. When the door opened, she stood there wrapped in an oversized towel. Her hair was twisted up away from her head. I didn’t say anything as I walked over to retrieve her gown from the dresser.

  “Thank you,” she whispered when I handed it over to her. The door remained open while she changed and brushed out her hair. I watched the way she moved, sleek and graceful as she combed each strand of her golden hair. Each pass with the brush caused her natural curls to bounce back in its rightful place framing her angelic face.

  I loved this woman more than anything in this world, and the thought of the monster violating her bit into my heart. Anger caused my blood to boil and I clinched my hands to keep from breaking something. I saw the pictures in her head, of him taking her against her will. Her cries for help were drown out by the primal growl of the monster feeding off of her; taking her to the point of death. I squeezed my eyes tight, trying to stop the vision that was now forever burned into my brain.

  “Dragus?” Charity stood in the doorway looking at me with a confused look on her face. She stepped back when our eyes made contact. She was scared; I felt it. “What’s wrong?”

  I darted to her side and wrapped my arms around her tiny waist, “Nothing, mi amor.”

  “You’re mad,” she frowned.

  “I’m fine,” I lied. Charity narrowed her eyes at me. She knew I was lying. “Did you need something?”

  She shivered and took a second to gather her thoughts. “Dart guns,” her face lit up at the words, but I was confused.

  “Dart guns?” I replied, confused.

  “Yes,” she paused. “Is there a way to use those tranquilizer dart things on Adam? If we can exchange the tranquilizer for the potion, we can shoot him from far away and then get him to the hospital. Maybe have some of the darts filled with the potion and others with Morphine.”

  She made a valid point. “You might just be on to something. Let me talk with Dr. Mason and Mistress Kai.” God, this woman isn’t just sassy, she’s smart.

  “I hate to do that to him, but he needs help,” she sighed.

  My phone rang and it was Ashby, “We have the warrant. Do you want me to take him into custody?” I stepped away from Charity so I could talk without her hearing.

  “No, I will do it.” There was a moment of silence on the other end.

  Ashby cleared his throat, “I don’t think that would be wise, sir.”

  “You can meet me there in about fifteen minutes,” I ordered. After I snapped the phone shut, I turned to find Charity with her back to me; she was crying. She must have heard what we were saying.

  “You’re going to arrest him?” she cried as if a weight of a thousand worlds had been lifted from her shoulders.

  “Yes,” I whispered. “He needs to be punished for his crime.”

  “I know,” she sighed. “This is why I never told anyone. Now I’m going to have to tell my story to a bunch of strangers in court. I don’t want to talk about it, Dragus.”

  I wrapped my arms around her again and kissed the top of her head, “He has to be taken off the street. If he’s done it to you, then think of how many others might be out there.”

  “You do what you have to do,” she huffed and wiggled out of my arms.

  The last thing I wanted to do was to leave her here alone, but I also wanted to see the monster’s face when he was placed under arrest.

  I reached out for her, only to have her pull away again. “I have to go meet Ashby at the hospital. I’ll be back soon.”

  Charity nodded, walked over to the couch, and sat down. She picked up a book that had been brought from her house and began reading. There was nothing I could say or do right now to get her to open up to me. I sensed she was embarrassed and ashamed; for that I felt anger. No woman should possess those feelings when the situation was never their fault.

  I grabbed my keys and returned to Sacred Heart to serve some justice.

  I found Ashby standing at the nurse’s station, talking to Nurse Alice.

  “Here are the forms,” he pushed them into my hand. I looked over the charges and felt satisfied that we had the correct documents. Judge Trenton signed the arrest warrant. Good.

  “Let’s go,” I growled. This moment could go smoothly, but for some reason, I doubted this monster would go easily.

  Ashby and Nurse Alice followed me into the enclosed room. Richard Somers was sitting up in his hospital bed watching television. His face dropped when he saw the three of us approaching.

  “Good evening Krieger. I assume this isn’t a social call?” he laughed.

  Before I could issue a proper warning growl, Ashby grabbed my elbow, pulling me back a few steps. “Easy, Dragus,” he whispered. “We need to do this by the book.”

  It was a warning I have said many times over. That was my main rule when teaching new recruits or when sending someone out with an arrest warrant. Ashby was right; the last thing we needed was for my temper to get him off his charges on a technicality.

  “Richard Somers,” I swallowed. “You are under the arrest for the sexual assault and attempted murder of Charity Harwood.”

  His bellowing laugh echoed through the room, “Ah, the Lady Krieger, huh. I remember her. She was a very delicate and sweet tasting human. Yes, I remember her blood smelling like roses. Not much of a fighter either.” He took a moment to close his eyes and lick his lips.

  I lunged for his throat, but was immediately grabbed by Ashby. Blood boiled into my new yellow eyes. Venom dripped from my sharpened fangs as I growled so loud, I know it shook the whole fucking hospital. Suddenly more hands were gripping my wrists and the tops of my arms, before I was pulled out of the room. The door slid closed and I turned to see Brock and William standing there on alert, waiting for me to return to the room.

  Brock started to speak, but I silenced him with a hard stare, “Back off, recruit!” I refused to tempt myself by going back in the room. So I stood outside the window and watched Ashby take over for me.

  Ashby stepped forward with a set of handcuffs. These were not your typical garden variety ones. Because of our strength, the cuffs had to be made of a special blend of titanium. Not only have each pair been specially made, we’ve added a special hardening spell to the links. The queen’s squire is the most powerful sorcerer of modern times. He oversees each and every casting of the cuffs. His spell on the cuffs also keeps the suspect from using their powers.

  Before he had a chance to shape shift, Ashby had him cuffed. I knew the moment when his powers were drained, because Richard slumpe
d slightly, his blood filled eyes drained immediately and he pierced me with an evil stare.

  After Ashby left with the suspect, I made my way down to the lab to speak with Dr. Mason and Mistress Kai.

  Charity

  My chest ached knowing Dragus was away from the mansion. I felt it deep in my bones. The fact that he was probably standing face to face with my murderer didn’t diminish the pain I was under either.

  With tears still streaming down my face, I tossed the book on the coffee table and called Lydia. She was still at the mansion and appeared almost instantly.

  “Oh Charity,” she gasped when she saw my swollen face. “What can I do?”

  “Just stay with me until Dragus gets back.” That’s all I could ask for at the moment. The last thing I wanted was to be alone.

  “Where is he?” she asked.

  “He’s arresting him,” I sighed. “If I just had a stake with me earlier, I would have killed him myself.” My anger boiled and then I shivered.

  Lydia looked at me with pleading eyes, “Please do not confront him. That monster could hurt you worse now.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I have no plans on seeing him anytime soon. The first time has left his face burned into my brain for too long.” I groaned.

  Lydia cleared her throat and whispered, “What did Dragus say?”

  I lifted my eyes to meet hers. Worry was plastered all over her face. “He didn’t say much. I sensed he was angry and confused. He didn’t push me too hard to talk about it either.”

  “That’s good,” she sighed. “You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want too.”

  “That’s the problem. Now that he is in custody, I’m going to have to tell a courtroom full of strangers about it.” I grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes to enforce what I was about to say. “Lydia, I don’t want to talk about it!”

  I felt tears stinging in the backs of my eyes. I tried to squeeze them closed to stop the bloody moisture from spilling over. Fat lot of good it did me, because the second I opened them, the tears rolled out over my lids and flowed down my face.

  Before I could wipe them away, ghost hands caressed my cheeks and removed them for me. The smell of sweet musk enveloped me and a faint brush of lips touched my forehead. I will be home soon, mi amor.

  Lydia gasped and jumped back as she saw the tears vanish from my face. “What the hell was that?” she gasped.

  “Dragus, he was checking on me,” I shrugged. “Don’t worry, he does it a lot.” I had to laugh at her expression. It was priceless. She looked like a fish out of water, gasping for air. Her lips formed as if to ask a question, but no sound would escape. It took her a minute to spout out what she was thinking.

  “He can actually touch you?” she squeaked the question she was having trouble asking.

  “Yeah, he knows when I’m stressed or upset. His powers are very strong. He can even speak to me with his thoughts.”

  “What did he say?” she was surprised. I don’t blame her either. I never knew that a Krieger held that much power, until now.

  “He said he will be home soon.”

  Lydia stood up off the couch and grabbed her coat, “Well, sunrise is coming. I better get going myself.”

  After a quick hug, she took off to her place. I was all alone. The house was too quiet. The servants must have retired for the day and the humans had not arrived yet.

  I jumped when my phone rang. I checked the caller id and was a little puzzled at a call from Meadow. “Meadow, is everything okay?” I answered the phone.

  “Yes, my lady,” she paused. I stifled a laugh. She must have heard about our bonding. “I had a vision again, sort of.”

  This confused me, for a second. I had already forgotten about Meadow’s new ability. I felt bad that I hadn’t been a very good mentor to her lately. “What do you mean by ‘sort of’?”

  “Well, it’s not so much a vision, as it is more of a feeling,” she laughed unsteadly.

  “What’s the feeling?” Sometimes it was like pulling fangs to get her to just come right out with whatever she needed to say. Tonight was one of those nights.

  “I was sitting here, reading a book, when I felt my mind go a little hazy. The next thing I know, I was speaking aloud.” I heard her sigh heavily on the other end.

  “And what did you say, Meadow?” I pressed.

  “I said, ‘Whatever you are planning, it will work’, and then I saw a vision of you standing outside, close to some trees.” She laughed slightly, “I hope you can decipher it, because I have no clue what that means.”

  I had a good feeling what it meant; my idea about getting the potion to Adam may work. Maybe I’m just being hopeful. If her visions were correct. When a vampire is just starting to manifest their powers, sometimes those abilities can be a little erratic. Could Meadow’s visions be correct?

  “Thank you, Meadow. I will let you know if your vision comes about. Don’t worry about it. You did the right thing by telling me.”

  After I hung up, I put her vision in the back of my mind. I couldn’t take the things she sees to heart just yet. The best thing for me to do was to keep them to myself, for now.

  Dragus wasn’t home and it was getting close to dawn, and I wondered what was taking him so long. Dragus, where are you? I thought as I closed my eyes waiting for the dawn to take me into my death sleep.

  Strong hands wrapped around my waist at the exact moment the aching in my chest lifted. I looked down and felt relief as I saw his muscular arms encircling around me, in solid form.

  “I’m here, love,” he whispered. His cool breath washed over my neck and I shivered. “Rest well. I’ll be here when you awaken.”

  With those last words, I felt the pull of death wearing down on me and I closed my eyes.

  As soon as I took my first breath of the evening, I found myself cocooned into my warrior’s arms. He was still in his death sleep and I found that odd. Dragus was always awake whenever I arose in the evenings. I touched his arms and found them cold and clammy.

  I had to strain my neck to see the clock on the bedside table. It said the time was five p.m. The time had me confused as well. I have never awoken this early, ever. My usual time was around six p.m. during this part of the year.

  I struggled to remove myself from his embrace and found out that I just wasn’t that strong. By some miracle, I was able to roll myself over to face him.

  I reached up and traced the strong muscles in his firm jaw. His beautiful lips were blue from the lack of oxygen to his body and they were relaxed into a subtle pout that I found erotic. Dragus’ hard exterior vanished in his death; his features softened. The black dragon tattoo that all Krieger adorned rested peacefully on his neck. It too looked as if it was sleeping. His thick lashes draped down almost to the tops of his cheekbones. I traced the cords of muscles from his neck over the tops of his shoulders and down his side.

  Out of habit, I pulled the covers up over his waist and onto his shoulders. He would never know comfort in this gesture, for he never felt the chill in the air during his rest. For some reason, I just felt better knowing I was providing for him. He was my warrior, my mate.

  We were bonded and needed to prepare for our Joining. Dragus said he had sent word to the queen. She would be the one to set our date and be the one to approve our Joining. Would she deny me because I was tainted?

  I had a moment of panic spear me as I thought those words. There is no reason why she would deny our bonding. Dragus would fight her if she dismissed our request for the Joining. I hope. And why would I worry about my past?

  By the time Dragus took his first breath, I hadn’t quite reeled in my concern. He looked at me puzzled, “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I lied.

  “When did you awaken?”

  “Oh, about,” I looked over at the clock, “half an hour ago.”

  “How did you do that?” he insisted.

  “I don’t know, it just happened,” I barked. “I opened my eyes a
nd I was locked in your arms and you were still dead.”

  “Hm,” he frowned. “It will happen, since you have warrior blood in you. Just don’t leave the room until I’m up, okay.”

  “So, what did Dr. Mason say?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “He thinks that he can do as you asked. Mistress Kai was to work on the darts today while we rested. If she is able to get them done, we will need to go to your house tonight,” he paused to take a deep breath and shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of you being bait. I just don’t like it.”

  I reached up and placed two fingers across those soft lips I loved so much, “Stop panicking. I will be fine.”

  “Yes and your judgments have been perfect over the past few weeks too,” he said sarcastically.

  “I’m going to ignore that comment and go brush my teeth,” I huffed. Dragus chuckled as I stomped my feet across the bedroom floor. It didn’t take long before he joined me in the bathroom.

  After we finished with our silent brushing, I followed him back into the bedroom. Dragus sat on the edge of the bed and patted the mattress.

  Because of my early waking, my thirst peaked as I caught the scent of him. The sweet musk of his rolled through my senses and I felt my fangs lengthen. I paused to clinch my shaking hands. Dragus immediately sensed my thirst and pulled me down onto his lap.

  Once we were sated from our morning meal, we dressed and met Simon in the dining room. Dragus scooped up his packet from the table and walked into the living room. He sat down in the recliner and pulled me onto his lap. I laughed and slung my legs over the side; resting my head on his shoulder, “What’s in the packet?”

  “Reports from the human police,” he murmured as he read. I noticed the muscle in his jaw tighten. My warrior always working, always taking charge of everything. How could I not love him? I watched his expression as a little pucker pinched his brow.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “The news media picked up the story about his arrest,” he grimaced. “Word got out about his charges.”