Ariadne sat cross-legged on her bed and didn't pay much attention to her sister. They felt the same way, were equally frustrated and unhappy, so she let Cheetah have the tantrum while she tried to think about what they could do. It saved time to multi-task.
"I wish Mom was here," Cheetah said.
Ariadne nodded, then lost track of what her twin said, except for the occasional sentence.
What was with having a ghost around anyway?
"Stupid Caleb. If he hadn't been there, nobody would know what happened?"
But what had happened? Where did the ghost come from?
"This is all Cammie's fault. She called up that evil spirit."
Had she? Hadn't she and Cheetah felt the ghost here at the house? Cammie had never been to their house.
"I wish Sid was here," Cheetah went on. "She'd know what to do."
Ariadne looked up. "I miss Sid too." As she said it a thought came to her, and a smile crossed her face. "Sid's a free woman having her own adventures."
"And a werewolf," Cheetah added. "Can you believe she's actually bonded to a werewolf. Great grandmother hates it." Cheetah sounded infinitely pleased by this anomaly.
"It's true Sid isn't here."
"We could call her."
"She's a Dark Angel now. She's busy with military ops."
"Wish we were."
"We need to get out of the house first." Ariadne rose to her feet. "Sid might not be available, but she has a brother. Cousin Laurent knows how to think out of the box. If anyone can help us, he can."
Eden arched against Laurent's chest as the sharp tip of his fingernail traced across her shoulder and up her throat. The gentle movement sent streaks of heat to her breasts and belly. His head came down, his lips following the path of his finger.
Toni the Toddler Terror was asleep in her room. It was near midnight and Eden and Laurent had themselves to themselves at last.
They were kneeling on their bed, her back against him. One of his hands was between her splayed legs, teasing and stroking as she grew wetter and more aroused. His erection pressed against her ass. She wanted him inside her. He knew it, but her Prime was such a tease.
His claw moved to press against a nipple. No pain. But the awareness of dangerous sharpness sent her spinning with need. The needle tip presses against the erect bud.
"Don't do -- Correction. Do that again!"
He did.
And laughed as he did.
The sound was so deep and sexy it was enough to send an orgasm rocking through her.
"You want to do that again too?" he asked. His fingers kept on teasing.
"Yes, please."
He spun her to face him. She gasped, his strength and speed amazing her, reminding her--
"Ari! Chee!"
Toni's voice came from her room down the hall. Through two closed doors. Hardly muffled at all.
"Chee! Ari!"
Why on earth was their daughter calling out for her vampire babysitters?
Whatever the reason, having Toni awake and vocal was enough to break the mood in her parents' bedroom.
"I'll go," Laurent said when Eden moved to get off the bed.
"Clothes," she reminded him as he headed naked toward the door.
He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and left. In the distance, Toni kept babbling about Chee and Ari. Eden lay back on the bed, glad that the kid sounded happy, but wishing Toni had stayed asleep. She lay with her eyes closed, thinking sexy thoughts and hoping she and Laurent could get back to making love soon.
This got old fairly quickly. Why was Laurent taking so long with their daughter? Eden got up, tied on her robe, and went to see what the rest of her family was up to.
"What are you doing here? How did you get in here?" Laurent demanded when he saw the teenagers in his daughter's room. Ari and Chee, That was what Toni called them, but they were - Ariadne and Celeste, though he couldn't tell which of the identical twins were which.
Toni helped by tugging on the long, dark hair of the girl holding her. "Ari!" she declared.
Ariadne. Right. She was the alpha of this pair as Laurent recalled. He addressed her. "Well?"
It was the other girl who answered. "Toni let us in her window."
Laurent frowned at his toddler. "How do you know how to do that?"
"Vampire girls are born escape artists," Ariadne said. She sounded terribly proud of this.
Laurent decided to take up the matter of proper behavior with his daughter later. "Why are you here?" he asked the twins.
They shuffled, didn't meet his gaze, and generally behaved in a suitably guilty manner.
"So, you ran away from home," he said.
He suddenly recalled that Lady Juanita had contacted him about looking into whatever the girls were up to. So, they were up to something. It was a good thing they'd come to him instead of the other way around. Lady Juanita didn't want the girls to know just how closely watched over they really were.
They were children of the modern world. They wanted freedom. But it was so very dangerous to be a vampire female, and there were so few of them. Fanatical mortal vampires wanted to kill the females so the species would die off. Tribe Primes were always on the lookout to kidnap and enslave vampire females. Because the Tribes didn't want their culture to die out and needed the women even more than the Clans and Families did. And there was the unspoken fear Primes and Matri had of modern vampire females being attracted to mortals and werefolk. There were many ways their species could die. The responsibility and difficulty of being a female was terrible.
His Toni would grow up to be a vampire female. He was suddenly sadly aware of the burden she'd carry along with all the privileges of being a Clan Daughter.
He took Toni out of Ariadne's arms. He held her close while he waited for the twins to talk. His daughter, in her pink nightgown, was fascinated by hair this evening and began to play with his.
It was Celeste who finally said, "You're going to think this is crazy, but there's a ghost. It's haunting us."
"And causing trouble at school," Ariadne spoke up. "Which is why great grandmother won't let us go back."
"You have to help us get rid of it," Celeste said. "Do you know an exorcist? That's the right word, isn't it? You have to help us fix this."
He found her choice of words telling. "Help you fix this? What did you do?"
"We just went with the others - the mortal kids - to the graveyard. It was supposed to be scientific. We had - electronic stuff. Then Cammie screamed and the guy yelled at us and we ran and the ghost followed us."
"Back to the Citadel," Ariadne put in.
"At least we thought it was there but it appeared at school and scared everyone and now great grandmother--"
"Let's talk about the ghost," Ariadne broke in. She finally met Laurent's gaze. "I think the ghost latched onto us because we're vampires."
"You sure it's a ghost?" Laurent asked.
"It's a big black shadow," Celeste said. "It moans and screams and scares people. That's a ghost, right?"
"What's a ghost?" Eden said, stepping into the room. "What are you two doing here?" she added, giving the girls an annoyed look. "How'd you get--?"
"I'll tell you later," Laurent told his bondmate. Toni reached out to her mother, and he turned her over to Eden. "Come with me," he said to the twins. "Living room," he told the twins. They'd been in the house often enough to know where that was.
"Go ahead," Eden called after him as he led the girls from the small bedroom. "Leave the mortal to clean up any trouble caused by a vampire."
"Yes, dear," he called back. Only to get a sharp laugh in reply.
He sent the girls ahead and stopped by the bedroom long enough to pull on a tee-shirt. Somehow it didn't seem right to be half dressed while alone with teenage females. Then he joined Ariadne and Celeste in the dark living room. They hadn't thought to turn on any lights. Laurent decided not to bother with this mortal convenience himself. The darkness was convenient for letting his Prim
e senses stretch into the room's shadows and the girls' shielding.
"Yep," he said after a few moments. "Shadows."
"See?" said one of the twins.
"Don't sound so smug, girl," Laurent said. "The shadows are coming from you."
"What?" one of them said.
"That's what I was afraid of," said the other.
"What?" Cheetah repeated.
Ariadne took her sister's hand. "I figured this out on the way over here. I think we're the ghost."
"We're vampires. Ghosts are dead mortals. So are zombies."
"Let's not complicate the matter with more than one mortal superstition," Laurent said.
"I can't see from inside my own head," she said to their cousin, "but I suspect there's some kind of energy loop thing going on between me and Cheetah - Celeste," she added.
"I thought we needed an exorcist," Cheetah said.
"We do." Ariadne pointed at Laurent. "Him. We need another telepath. Someone outside our heads to fix the insides and--"
"Do you mean we have something inside our heads?" Cheetah asked, every so slightly panicking.
Shadows coalesced and spun around them. the ghost moaned.
"That's not from inside me!" Cheetah shouted.
Ariadne tried to remain calm, but her own feelings, dark yet protective, rose in response to her sister's.
The ghost snarled. The darkness grew darke--
"Whoa!"
Laurent's stern voice rang in their ears. He was suddenly seated between them. He had a hand wrapped around each of their wrists. He projected power, and control. The ghost, or whatever it was, had faded back into the room's darkness.
"Psychic feedback loop," Laurent said. "Created when something spooked-uh-frightened, and angered, you."
"How do you know this?" Cheetah asked him.
"I'm making it up as I go along," he answered. "But this is what I think has happened. You're psychic, you're twins, you're hormonal teenagers frustrated by living in a world where you don't really fit in -- the same can be said for a lot of mortal kids about not fitting in. But you have powers. You also have the instincts of predators. Well controlled, but the instincts are still there. You are Wolves," he said. "In so many ways."
A momentary preen of pleasure went through Ariadne. It was good to have her true nature recognized. Even by an adult Prime.
Cheetah leaned forward to look across Laurent at her. "We did that?"
Ariadne nodded.
"Cool."
"Don't do it again," Laurent said. He paused for a moment, grinned, and added, "Unless I tell you to."
"How do we not do it?" Cheetah asked. "It's scary," she added. "We could hurt our friends."
"Yes, you could," Eden said, coming into the room. She turned on a lamp. "I'm glad you see that you're aware that your anger could pose a danger."
Ariadne was fond of Toni's mother, but the mortal was from a vampire hunting background and was always on the lookout for bad vampire behavior. Though Ariadne didn't think Eden realized just how much of an eagle-eyed scold she could be. It was funny that someone so disapproving had ended up bonded to someone as wild as cousin Laurent.
"You're being a pain, woman," Laurent told Eden.
Eden frowned, then laughed. "I guess I am. Sorry, kids." She put her hands on her hips and concentrated on Laurent. "Now, just what are you planning to do with these children?"
Ariadne noticed Eden said with rather than to. She looked at Laurent. "What do you want to do with us?"
Laurent stood and addressed them. He wasn't as formal as a Prime addressing an adult female, but he did show respect. "What I would like, is for you young ladies to help me dispose of a problem with a journalist trying to expose the truth about us."
Cheetah grinned enthusiastically. "Do we get to kill somebody?"
"No," Eden said.
Laurent held up his hands. "No," he agreed with his bondmate. "But you will get to scare the shit out of her."
Ariadne said, "What do we do? When?"
Laurent looked at Eden. "This is okay with you?"
She crossed her arms. "I think I know what you're up to." She shrugged. "Sounds fine to me."
"Good." He turned back to Ariadne and Cheetah. "Let me make a couple of calls, then I'll explain what we need to do."
"I hope you don't mind my imposing on you," Laurent said to Brian January.
They occupied the front seats of the returned ghost hunting van. Brian was driving along a busy street a few minutes after sunset. For some reason the ghost hunters liked doing their work at night. Laurent certainly didn't mind. The back of the van was full of neatly stored equipment, and a couple more members of January's team. The rest of the ghost hunters were already on the way to the night's location in a second van. January's group had a pick-up to make before they joined the rest of the team.
"No problem, bro," Brian replied. "We can use extra hands and eyes with Dean being gone."
"I think this will be fun. You're going to have to recruit a replacement for Dean, you know." Laurent sent a thought about how Rachelle Burke might make an addition to the group into Brian's thoughts. He found that the notion was already in place.
" I know," Brian said. "Thanks for coming on the ride along, and bringing the lady. It's like killing two birds with one stone for you, right?"
"Right," Laurent said. But without any killing.
"What does Rachelle want to interview you about?"
"Detective stuff, I guess. I think she's interested in what you do, too."
"I hope so." Brian sounded enthusiastic, then he sighed. "I hope she doesn't write a story making fun of what the team does."
"I don't--"
"There she is." Brian pulled the van to the curb. Rachelle Burke was standing on the sidewalk outside her hotel. Her attractive form was illuminated by a streetlight.
She looks like an angel, Brian thought.
Laurent hadn't meant this intrusion into the mortal's mind, and quickly strengthened his own mental shield not to intrude again. Still, it was nice to know how much Brian January was attracted to the journalist. May she be equally attracted, Laurent hoped.
Brian jumped out of the van to approach the woman. Laurent moved to join the others in the back of the van, so Rachelle could sit next to Brian. The pair got in the front, and chatted amiably as Brian drove toward the investigation site.
The twins had been practicing calling up the ghost since the night before, when cousin Laurent outlined his plan. They didn't have anything better to do, after all, since they'd been stuck at home since sneaking in from the visit to Laurent's. Their escape route, which was an emergency tunnel no one had ever had to use, accessed through the garage floor. Cousin Sid had shown it to them as a seventeenth birthday present, telling them she'd found it when she was a kid. They'd never had a problem getting to it until today, when a couple of Primes had decided to use the garage to actually work on a car engine.
Annoying males.
At least the Primes finally got into their car and drove away from the Citadel. Ariadne and Cheetah would have left right after the Primes, but great grandmother decided they should have dinner - her breakfast - with her.
At last they were finally able to send Laurent a telepathic message they were leaving and made it undetected to the tiny Fiat their mother had given them for their birthday.
Now they sat high in the pitch black darkness of the rafters of an abandoned warehouse and watched the professional investigators of the SDPES, two men and two women. The mortal ghost hunters had their own electric generator. They fired it up, set up a folding table and plugged in computers and other stuff. They put on night vision glasses, and carried night vision cameras. They had all kinds of recorders and meters.
Ariadne was fascinated by all this scientific equipment. She and Cheetah smiled at each other, confident the mortals wouldn't detect them, even with their night vision equipment. After all, none of the members of the SDPES were immune to the girls' simple telepathic
command not to look up. Laurent had told them that the mortal journalist wouldn't react to telepathy, so they had a spot picked out to hide whenever that became necessary.
Bored now, Cheetah thought.
"Me too," Ari whispered.
The outer door of the old building grated open. Another group of people carrying equipment came in. Laurent was among them. Ari recognized the big mortal male as Brian January. There was also a woman. She had to be the troublemaker. The woman had a very strong aura, and she kept switching her attention between Laurent and January.
"Showtime," Cheetah said. She rubbed her hands together. "Time to get all frustrated and angry."
Ariadne nodded. "Gonna be fun."
Rachelle Burke walked into the warehouse at January's side. Laurent smiled softly, very pleased at the way the pair's attention focused on each other. He was not pleased when Burke made herself step away from Brian and turned to him. Her reluctance was very promising, though.
"Why am I here?" she asked Laurent.
"Is this the beginning of our interview?" Laurent asked. "Remember I told you I'd answer five questions. So you have four left after I tell you that this was the only time I could work you into my schedule. I have missing people to look for, but since I told January I'd---"
"That wasn't an interview question, Wolf."
He tried for his most charming smile. "But you have my answer."
"I think you're up to something."
"I always am," he said. "But I thought we both might find the evening interesting. I don't believe much in the paranormal, but you seem to have quite an interest in it. Although I'm not sure someone with as vivid an imagination as you have -- "
"I do not have a vivid imagination," she said. "I do research. I hunt for facts and truth."
Brian January came up as she spoke, He put his hand on her shoulder. "That's exactly the sort of person we need doing our kind of research, Rachelle. Let me show you some of our scientific equipment."
Children of the Night, You're Grounded: Vampire Primes Short Story Page 4