Bad news came all too fast on Friday night at the second bonfire of the week. The weather had been unusually warm for a winter season and February was vast approaching.
What I thought was a private moment with Calum, was quickly turned into an all out Armageddon.
Maze’s intention was to sneak up behind me and knock me away from Calum, but she’d caught our topic of conversation and I stepped right into her squealing hands.
“What? You two have the same birthday. How cool is that? You two are so meant to be.”
Smiled at the last part, frowned at the first. And no we're not.
“When is it?” Maze insisted.
Calum and I looked at each other for answers. What else could we do?
“February 29th,” Calum answered.
Maze’s mouth opened and closed and opened again. “Leap day?”
I answered, “Yes!” Who can stop truth from happening? My stomach hit me first. Then something else. Something I hadn’t felt before. Dang fluttering stomach whatevers. I could barely stand it was so strong. I looked around the trees for the same or a different animals to be standing nearby. Nothing. Whatever this was, it was getting stronger. I noticed that I no longer felt just fear like with the rabbit, but a mixture of something scared, angry, excited, and even happy were coming from somewhere or something. Maybe this powers growing business was really real. Sometimes it can be a moment of perfect bliss where everything comes together like perfection and then…
“Wow, oh wow! You have to have a party. This is a first.”
“But we…please don't.” I prodded. I made my voice as smooth and compelling as I could with the obvious tinge of tension lingering in the middle.
“NO! I won’t take no. I’ll do everything.” Maze turned to Calum, “Do you think your dad will oppose decorations in the great hall if I promise to clean everything?”
Calum watched my expression and I almost thought he was going to save me by nixing it all but instead he rotated back to Maze and traitorously said, “I think it’s a great idea. I’ll tell my dad to let you have the staff for help. They’ll get decorations too.”
She ran off jumping and telling everyone she crossed as she went to go find Liz.
My mouth in a grave frown, he put both hands on my squared shoulders and bent down to my ear, “We will probably need the distraction to get away or at least hide whatever is going down on that day. It has to be that day. It just makes sense. If we can save our friends from anything, we will.”
Calum was so right and a clever, fast thinker. “That was really quick thinking and impressive. I’m still not happy about the big party thing, but if it includes you, me, and doom and gloom, bring it on!”
He smiled showing the never-ending dimples. “We are in hope that the “doom and gloom” will dissipate with the—” his hand in the air, “wait a minute.”
“What?”
Calum shooed me and paced a second. He looked deep in a “this is the way the world ends” thought.
“We have to rescue your brother,” he popped off.
“What?” I fought back the huge intake of air I’d just swallowed that was causing instant pain in my chest.
“We have to rescue him before the day. If he’s what they are holding over your father, it stands to reason that they will hold him there until they have you…gone. And kill him too. You heard him at the warehouse. He thought you'd already have been there. Wrong or right, we can't chance him getting caught in the middle.” He had trouble saying the last words. “We rescue Szar, hide him till the D day from everyone, survive the night of our birthday, and take out the bad guys.”
“Simple as that, Robin Hood?” I couldn’t help but refer to one of my favorite Benatar songs despite the embarrassment from the other night. I fought back the control I’d mastered from years of self-denial, making my voice even and smooth. “I am revealing more secrets out of the bag. Another piece of advice.”
Calum’s eyebrow arched. His lip edged up. I followed them both. He, no doubt, smiled. “Do tell!”
I couldn’t help but show off a little, so I sang it to him, in his ear after I made sure to pull him a little farther away from anyone.
I wonder if you knew
They would turn your bad deeds into good
Paint you as a modern day
Robin Hood!
I’m almost sure his body shivered when I nicked his ear at the last word. It was a mistake, but he seemed to like it.
Pulling my face back up to his he said, “So you think I’m Robin Hood. Do you want me to wear tights?”
I blushed pulling far enough back to pop him arm. “I just think that before I came along, your bad deeds were in vain. Now, they are for the greater good. At least that’s what I’ve always told myself.”
Calum marveled at the logic, “Perhaps your right. But I would only continue my bad deeds if the Lady Marion,” he pointed and rested a finger on my cheek, “were to say she will stand by and do the act with me.”
I couldn’t help where my thoughts took me at that precise moment though I would never follow through with them, but it was made clear to him either way. I looked at his finger still resting a tip on my cheek.
Stupid me had to ask, “And what BAD deeds do you propose needed be done, Mr. Hyde in the Shady Shadows Robin of the Hood that you might think I would be willing to enter into…with you?” What girl was talking here? This me was new and really, really bold. Trying out new thoughts. Dangerous thoughts that I no longer should fathom with Calum, but still feel the girl in me powered up to try out.
Calum didn’t answer but gave me the devil has you in his pocket barely audible laugh, and bent down to kiss me, BUT I puckered my lips in and bit my tongue for strength.
“Oh, you little—
“Devil!” I answered for him. “I can be!” I attempted a mock eyebrow raise to match his, but he just laughed and pecked my check.
“We need to find Lee and tell him what we need to do. If we can get your brother away, then maybe they’ll reevaluate their plan and go with plan B so we can figure our own plan.”
“It will still happen that day, I’m sure of it.”
Calum shrugged one shoulder up, “Most likely, but it will still make them want to talk more about what we need to hear and your brother is safe.”
He led me away. We found Lee in the same way we found him the other day with Maze. Tongue-tied.
Maze saw my look and had to comment, “What, you two are the only ones who can do the saliva tango? Seems you can’t get enough of that yum you talked on and on about the other night, Stace.”
My face was beet red. How could she? “Oh, I’m sorry, Stace. That certainly falls into the realm of too much information.”
Calum groaned, but he liked it nonetheless.
My state of euphoria in Calum’s presence seemingly never went unnoticed. Kissing him was a great pastime. I made my heavy breathing unwantingly noticeable by the way the white fog emitted from my mouth in little circles like a smoking a pipe in the night air. I wasn’t as head over heels about Calum himself, but did spend the other night chattering on about the attention he gives me. I guess that comes off to Maze as “yum” in her eyes.
Calum made small talk at first and then hinted at hanging out. Lee didn’t take the bait on my hints at a covert rescue mission, so I joked about this old warehouse I used to play in and wondered if it was still there. He caught my tone and said he’d meet us in ten minutes at the library for the paper he had to get done anyway.
Once there I wanted to ask Lee about Maze, but I chickened out. All arranged for later tonight, we all had a list of supplies we had come up with and organized how to get them with no time to waste. We had no idea the actions of the night would change the course of history.
After curfew, we met and bounded off in Lee’s car. I started to shed the top layer of my clothes when Calum stopped my arm from ascending up with my t-shirt. I’d sneaked my “Val Supergirl” outfit with me from home, bu
t couldn’t resist wearing it tonight. Getting my brother out might prove needing to be invisible. I gave Calum a look, pointed to my suit underneath assuring myself it was there and watched him back up to watch. Both of them watching me. I couldn’t stop what I’d already started, so I pressed on. Even in the dark I saw the glint in both their eyes as their looks darkened.
With my glow in the dark hair tied neatly into a bun and covered with my favorite black pull over hat, I hid my brothers patch in my shiny leather belt hidden pocket, touched my dagger, all seven knives, and my favorite fold out sling shot packed neatly in the hidden spots no one would see.
“You’ll need a weapon!” Calum authorized with his eyes expectant and full of curiosity.
Aware of his eyes raking over me, I smarted off, “I’m covered.”
“She’s covered in more weapons right now than clothes,” Lee said sharply.
Calum shot his head to the seat next to him, his face darkened. I was in the back seat, back in my seat belt, mind you. Calum growled. Was he a Hunter or a Werewolf? I laughed at my funny.
“I have everything I need,” I smiled at Calum. “LEE and I also had sparring class during our two years of study together. I’ve trained since I was five. Lee, dear, do you want to give him details about our sparring sessions? He’d most definitely like to hear the details.”
Lee swallowed slowly but didn’t answer.
“No holding back now!” I purred.
“She won,” he whispered.
“What was that? Louder.” I snarled not the least bit stymied by the charge of his attempt at besting Calum.
“I lost to her, every time. I could never beat her,” his man-pride shot down. At least we were on the same page for the moment.
I licked my finger, and held it up and made my hiss loud enough to hear, “Score one for the la femme Nikita.”
“Correction!” Lee said.
I sat up to look at his eyes watching me in the rear view mirror.
“The badass Valkyrie daughter of a Goddess girl!”
I smiled and looked at the absence Calum had taken in the conversation with small wavering of sadness until he filled the silence.
“Correction! My badass Valkyrie, daughter of a Goddess girl.” Calum redirected the claim.
Lee nodded giving in to territorial claim.
We pulled up, hid the vehicle in the trees different than last time to be sure and slinked through the darkness. The guys crawled up the same ladder as before and surveyed the insides while I stayed footed below on lookout. When they returned to the ground, we headed to a window they claimed was on the first floor boarded up from the outside. How the heck did they really know? From the semantics of looking through a second floor window?
Stealth proved hard with winter littered all around. We tracked very slowly to the spot, but luck gave us the edge when the boards simply slid down the wall from rot.
Calum eased the first board off and Lee the second. They took turns removing them until we all three could see the back of some water heater like contraption poking out from the beams in the wall. The warehouse was more modernized on the inside compared to the outer trimmings.
Hearing something, I hushed them both and stood stark still while Calum surveyed the area around the building with his super Hunter hiding skills. He held one finger out and disappeared in the darkness.
After a while he returned and said the deep voiced critter from before had just arrived.
I crawled through first, followed by Lee, and then Calum. Once in, we spoke more hand motion speak than verbal and spread out to flank the enemy and swarm in. We agreed beforehand that Lee would swing around and wedge something against the door Mr. Deep Voice had entered minutes before now to give the idea that others were outside waiting. We didn’t want to give the appearance this was a three man “rain on their parade” invasion.
Somewhere in the waiting for the window to be peeled open and crawling through, my heart hit a down note. I’ve never had a normal childhood or teenage life like what I see in the TV shows I’d sneak to watch sometimes at night in my brother’s rec room. We'd stay up all night watching reruns of a life we could only imagine. Back home, I dreamed of saving the world one day and returning to biology and algebra the next. But I never dreamed I’d be the one needing to be saved or saving my brother’s life or risking other’s lives that didn't amount from my father's little missions to taper the dark forces who rallied against our court for petty arguments.
I banished my thoughts. Not because of what I was saying, but because of what I think I was about to say.
Fear! It hit me. It was probably Szar I sensed, but an odd feeling came over me in another way. The stomach flutters that found me in the woods at the school were so strong I wanted to fold over and wince. But it wasn’t that kind of bad, just strong. I was having a hard time explaining it in my mind because I wasn't at the school. And because the feeling also felt really good. Like I could feel someone or something near me buzzing too and they were buzzing inside me like a radar.
I went left, Lee went right, and Calum stayed the lookout as we moved silently through the darkness. Deep voice seemed to be sitting on the same broken office chair wheeling back and forth, playing on a cell phone. There was only one person that we could see. We could take him. And then I saw something we hadn’t seen before. They were so quiet, no one would. Even me.
Vampires.
I stopped so fast my Valkyrie awareness felt Calum’s fear alert shoot through the room. I leaned back against the wall and watched Calum’s face. I wasn’t near enough to send a message with my eyes. I darted them to where Lee should be standing and new enough of how much ground he should have made. He was leaning like me, hidden behind the shadows. I only saw the whites of his eyes.
I reached up to my teeth and pointed aiming my finger back at the front main doors to where the two bouncer Vamps stood guarding the door. Didn’t they hear or smell Lee when he barred the side door? Or even me or Calum? Why didn’t they attack? Maybe their noses were off duty like their brains. See, Vampires aren’t really as smart as all those books like to make them out to be. When they’re drained, they lose more than just their blood. Now, I have heard that the higher ups keep their marbles a little more intact as far as intellect goes, but the majority are only capable of feeding and fighting. I’d heard more stories about Vamps and Weres that caused me to avoid them than anything. Whether it was all true, I didn’t get close enough to find out. Hunters were easily taken. Elves? Haven’t entertained their company yet.
These two were the fighting kind. They both stood tall, broad shouldered, good looking, straight faced without emotion. I’d only met one Vampire before. A mission a year ago. He was gone before I could engage a fight. But oddly enough, the one on the left reminded me of him. I’m surprised I even noticed this.
Calum nodded an “I understand” response. I signaled Lee not knowing if he got it or not. I inched a ways down the wall all the time counting my steps and wagering my odds. I’d fought minion Hunters and a zombie-fried Were at the same time once. I didn’t doubt my abilities, just my need to take all three at one time. That’s assuming deep voice will take on a fight. Of course, I also assume that’s why super Vamp dudes were here.
At some point I dared a look back at Lee actually about to see he was closer now. I didn’t doubt his abilities at all, but I would be more successful if he took deep voice. I signaled that way. He understood.
I turned back to my two duo targets. Surprised, I felt the fear rolling off Vamp dude on the left. Vamp dude on the right was void of emotion. And even more, I altered my attention focusing on Szar. No fear. His jagged knife wrap around pattern tattoo on his right arm dripped blood. Years ago he’d tattooed his arm to somewhat match his stomach claiming to look like less of a freak. Or so he said. I never cared that much.
My hand slipped to my side feeling my dagger. I’d start with the minion Vamp closest to me. The one on the right.
At contact, the da
gger forced him back and down as the other one sized me up as an easy target and closed the distance between us. His head slammed against the door as my hands went to block his. I made knife #1 pin his shirt to the wooden doorframe. Pulling the other from my side I pinned knife #2 to his pants to the bottom of the door. But something didn’t feel right with him. It’s like he let me. Couldn’t he pick up on my evil vibing mojo?
I chanced a look at deep voice zoning in on me and Lee was too far away to make it. I had two knives out and in both thighs before he made it any farther.
Lee stopped where he was. Calum was across the floor making ground and standing next to Lee. Both stared in solid O, mouth open and catching flies as I call it. Yep! They doubted me. I heard Calum say, “Object in motion tends to stay in motion.”
“Except anyone with balls either stays clear of her motion or attacks just to be attacked by her,” Lee added.
As quick as lightening, I dropped my eyes to the cut my finger just managed to snag on the jagged wooden plank I slammed my fist into after the downed Vamp had flown through the air. I’d hit a glass panel in the broken off doorframe and busted it out. A piece of the glass was sticking out of my finger so I pulled it and waited about thirty seconds for the heal to take place. You see, I’m so odd, so treated different, that my oddities are a big secret bubbling up inside of me and bursting to get free. I could heal from any wound instantly. Since I was born this was true. And I was sure to this point that I’ve kept it secret until Lee mentioned what he was told to do before he left our court.
I looked around the warehouse for one more surveillance check to be sure. I felt no one but my two Hunters and one very missed Valkyrie twin brother. The fear was still coming from this Vamp #2 while I still had my current dagger aimed into his throat. I glanced up to a look to his face. His stare indifferent, I couldn’t read him. But I couldn’t figure it because his fear was not like the usual fear from my predator to prey stance. Hard to read. What are you afraid of hot looking Vamp boy? Too bad you’re a Vamp.
Orion Page 21