Day Dreamer (Undeadly Secrets Book 2)

by Aaron L Speer

  Still, it was exciting fooling her parents into thinking she was just hanging with friends. Plus, in return, he supplied some decent booze, ecstasy and pot that almost no money, and quite a bit of stealing could get him. “You know you’re getting into my pants, Troddy. Why bother with the small talk?”

  “Just trying to be a gentleman,” he replied, stroking her neck with his fingers.

  “Please, with Trent Miller as your best friend, the last thing you are is gentle. Why are you friends with such a prick?”

  “Better to be the beast’s best friend than to be its enemy. Anyway, just be thankful he doesn’t know about this, otherwise he would want to join in, and I ain’t saying no to him.”

  “I wouldn’t let him near me,” Lucy said, taking a swig of whiskey. The guy she did want wasn’t here. She had watched the new kid, Nick, for a while now and she thought he was seriously sexy. He had the blonde hair with the hot just-a-bit-too-long-fringe look, along with the big blue eyes, and an even bigger smile.

  She had fantasised about what he would be like several times, and it looked like she would again, seeing as though the thirty-second tank was revving his engine. Lucy gave an internal shrug and started unbuttoning her jeans. Might as well get him over with.

  *

  “Melina!” Julian hissed.

  She had almost completely forgotten she was not alone. Julian had taken her hunting “to improve her mood,” he’d said. They stood on the roof of the Coogee Bay Hotel, watching over the scene below in the small, dark playground in the park. Melina turned to him, eyes weary. “What?”

  “I said, do you now see my genius? I told you how easy it was to hunt in Coogee,” he growled. “Tell me how you will tear them apart.”

  Melina looked away, rubbing her temples. Tight due to lack of blood and exhaustion. Tonight was their hunting night; yet another activity Julian insisted on joining to direct her as if she was a newborn. “Not tonight.”

  Julian was insistent. “You know what it does to me to hear how you will kill. You have never denied me anything before.”

  “There is a first time for everything,” she replied, keeping her eyes on the children. Stupid as they were, they did not deserve to die. Not tonight anyway. Besides, the amusement of watching youngsters try to fuck when they still had no idea how, was the only reason her heavy eyes hadn’t slammed down.

  Julian crossed his arms, scowling. “You are still on about your ridiculous theory that you woke during the day?”

  “I wake during the day. It’s happening more and more often. But I know I’m wasting my breath. You don’t believe me.”

  “How can I believe something I know to be impossible?”

  “That’s the same as calling me a liar. And then you run off to tell your father.”

  “Which is what I told you to do in the first place was it not? He thinks the same as I do, you are just dreaming.”

  “We don’t dream.”

  “We do now,” he corrected.

  Melina shook her head. “I haven’t taken any of that shit. Dream State is an abomination.”

  “Father’s theory is you don’t have to take it to feel its effects. With the number of us using it in the mansion, it is quite possible you are experiencing side effects from the air. This is what he believes.”

  “It must be true then,” Melina moaned.

  Julian’s head whipped around to face her. “Did I just hear you insult my father, the king? What the hell has gotten into you?”

  “I’m just…tired. It must be from all my dreaming. Does he have any idea what to do based on Clive and Lauren’s near miss?” She tensed, hoping the subject change would be enough to calm him.

  Julian stiffened. “He and I both admit this is a problem. That greedy fuck at Coffinail slipped underneath Luca’s gaze. But he’s dead now and Luca has assured us it’s nothing that cannot be rectified.”

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Because there is clearly more to this than meets the eye. The pack possesses the once paraplegic human that was taken out of his hospital bed some months ago. He can now walk and is being trained to hunt us. Not only that, but they have taken refuge somewhere in the one place our kind would be in danger. Where Vincent’s authority is not recognised, much less feared.”

  “Redfern,” Julian spat.

  “If Clive hadn’t halted Lauren from following them, she would’ve been killed the other night. Do you not think it strange, even unnerving, that the pack knows to use Redfern as a base?”

  “So the coons have some friends around while they sniff some petrol. What of it?”

  “The pack is receiving help!” Melina hissed. “Werewolves have never been here, yet they hide in the one place Vincent has declared a no-go zone due to the Aborigine population. Can you not see it? Can you not feel it? A force is gathering. Something is coming. Unseen and unheard, but it’s coming after us.”

  “Don’t be so melodramatic, woman. Trust us. My father and I know what we are doing.”

  “Trust you?” Melina scoffed. “You still refuse to tell me where you get Dream State from. Does it not seem obvious to you we have only had this wolf trouble since it came into our lives? What was it, a few weeks only, that we heard there was a werewolf presence here? No one else knew of it, correct? Well obviously not, and you still hate me asking questions! You won’t tell me what’s in it, only what it does. Either you know or are being lied to, but somehow you’ve pissed them off! Why can’t you just stop selling or buying it? It’s what they are here for!”

  “You have no idea what you are talking about!” Julian fired back. “We are the dominant race. We will not back down from a challenge. The mutts will be found and put down. End of story.”

  Melina wanted to retaliate; she sensed she was hitting a nerve. It pleased her quite immensely, but she just didn’t have the energy. Julian knew more about Dream State than he was letting on, and whatever it was, Melina imagined connected it with the wolves. And that was what scared him. “Can we just eat and go?”

  “Fine,” answered Julian, becoming even more livid by the second. “Which one is for you then?”

  “Actually, I’m not hungry,” Melina replied.

  Julian lowered his head after throwing it back dramatically. “You won’t tell me what you would do, and you won’t let me watch you feed. You still refuse to fuck me. How am I supposed to be kept happy?”

  “You’re the prince of Sydney, why wouldn’t you be happy? You’ve been busy slamming the slave girls, so I think sex with me is the last thing you should be worrying about.”

  “Men have needs.”

  Melina looked at him briefly up and down. “So do women,” she replied slowly.

  A sudden noise brought their attention back to the campfire. They had heard the same thing, but only Melina recognised the scent immediately. She couldn’t see him regardless how desperately she tried, and she had no idea why he was there, but it didn’t stop her smiling. An act not lost on Julian, she hoped.

  “Alejandro,” she whispered.

  *

  “Did you hear something?” Lucy asked, coming up for breath after Jason’s expected round of tongue boxing. She heard a loud twig snap as if someone had stepped on it.

  Jason’s hand moved to guide her mouth back towards his. “Don’t worry.”

  Lucy held his hand at bay. “I’m serious. I heard something.”

  “You always think you hear something. Come on, I’m horny.”

  Jason pulled her on top of him, lifted his head, and began kissing her again, his tongue continuing its frantic work. Jason’s hand wandered up her thigh, found her rear and squeezed tight. With the other hand, he pulled open her jeans.

  “Let’s swap. It’s more comfy on my back,” she said.

  “Just hurry up.”

  On her back, Lucy removed her jeans and panties, Jason didn’t even bother, merely unzipping himself and holding his erection ready as he knelt in
front of her.

  “Open them,” he grunted, swatting her knees apart with his hand. She handed him a condom, which he put on. Just like that, he was in. Lucy scrunched her eyes, praying it would be over soon. One thrust, then two, then…nothing. She could no longer feel him. She chanced a look and screamed. Jason was dangling above her, upside down.

  The other kids nearby finally heard Lucy’s screams and looked over, gasping at the broad figure holding Jason up by the leg as if he were made of paper. The figure turned his attention from the cursing and struggling Jason to Lucy.

  “Leave,” the figure stated. Nothing happened. Lucy was terrified, and felt frozen to the ground. The figure gave a hiss and his eyes changed to black and…good god, fangs appeared instead of usual teeth. “I said…FUCKING LEAVE!”

  Lucy scrambled, grabbing clothes she ran, wanting only to get away as fast as humanly possible.

  *

  Dante dropped Jason unceremoniously. “You have a wonderfully loyal girlfriend.”

  “Keep away from me, you freak!” Jason shouted, rising to his feet and making to punch Dante. Everything Jason threw, Dante blocked with hilarious ease, finally bringing him to his knees with a stinging slap. The blow cut the boy’s cheek in three places from Dante’s nails. Jason tried to run, but Dante bit him from behind. The bite was quick, a scare tactic, drawing blood only. He had seen bullies like this before over the years. The only way to respond to their form of attacks was controlled brutality. Showing them the strength they believed they wielded, even in numbers, was a fallacy. That there were things in the world stronger and scarier than they were.

  Jason screamed and began to whimper after Dante let him go. “What do you want, man?”

  “You attacked a boy tonight,” Dante said, licking his fangs and spitting the putrid muck back over him, circling Jason, who stayed in the one spot, breathing rapidly, petrified into stillness. “But you weren’t alone. Where is the other?”

  “Miller? At…at home.”

  Dante scowled. So that was why he lost the scent. The scum had gone indoors. “Where does he live?”

  “If I tell you…will you let me go?”

  “It may help,” Dante replied, his lip twitching.

  “Sixty-four Bellevue Crescent,” he rattled off. Dante grabbed Jason by the throat and held him aloft. “You said you wouldn’t kill me!”

  “I said it may help,” Dante replied, launching Jason into the campfire. The boy quickly rolled over it and along the ground, putting out the small flame that had stuck to his shoulder.

  “Oh, Jesus… Someone help me!”

  With a swift kick, Dante launched him briefly into the air until he landed on his bony arse and squealed.

  “That’s right. Scream, beg. What does it feel like to be brutalised with no one to save you?” Dante approached and placed his foot on Jason’s neck. “You are a coward who hides behind a stronger accomplice to take on one boy. This is the reward that has gotten you. Are you proud of yourself?”

  “No!” Jason blubbered. “Please, I’ll do anything! Just don’t kill me.”

  Dante roughly dragged Jason to his feet. “I’m not going to kill you. Not if you do as I say.”

  “Anything, dude!” Jason’s eyes were filled with panic. He wouldn’t be able to hang onto even this much calm for much longer. “Please. Name anything, I swear I’ll do it!”

  Dante grabbed Jason by the throat and gave a squeeze he knew would frighten the boy, but not cause any lasting damage. “First, never call me dude. Second, tell your friend, this Miller, that you want no further part in hurting Nick Slade. Tell him you know for a fact he is protected, and that those protecting him came after you. Say you don’t know who they are, but they sent you as a warning.”

  Jason coughed and writhed in Dante’s grasp. “You don’t know this guy. Miller won’t stop. The more obstacles that get put in front of him, the harder he goes for them. This whole thing started because of a girl at school he wants to fuck. The girl hates him! But he’s convinced he will get her and will let no one stand in his way. Plus he hates Brits! Loathes them for something their commandos did in Iraq that got his brother killed. That’s why he’s after Slade. If I say that stuff to Miller, he’s probably going to come after him harder just to spite you.”

  “That’s where you come in, you see,” Dante explained pleasantly, as if he were the most patient man in the world. “Do everything in your power to stop him. I don’t care what you do. Tell your teachers, the police, other students, fight him off yourself. If he ever comes near Nick again, not only will I come back for Miller, I’ll come back for you. You are now responsible for what happens to him. If Nick dies, I will kill Miller, and make you watch what I do to him. Then, I will pluck your still-beating heart from your chest. I have been alive for over two hundred years, I know how to kill quickly, and I know how to kill slowly. For you, I’ll be pleased to take my time.”

  “If I help you and protect this kid, Miller is going to kill me. If I don’t protect him, you’re going to kill me? What kind of a fucking choice is that?”

  “The right thing is rarely easy. Welcome to the real world, kid.”

  Dante released the boy’s neck, turned around and walked away.

  “Why is this kid so important to you?” Jason called out.

  Because the women who love him mean everything to me. Dante answered in his own head. He did not stop or turn as he said aloud, “He’s family.”

  *

  Melina stared, not believing what she had just witnessed. The caring and sweet Alejandro, who stood up for human rights, was threatening a teenage boy? The anger she heard in his voice was something she had not witnessed for centuries. She found it exhilarating. For only a few moments, Alejandro was not the human-lover he claimed to be, not the pathetic pansy he was taken for. He was a vampire, doing what comes naturally. He was bold, fierce and intimidating, unleashing only a part of what he kept hidden inside.

  Melina had only realised then the sudden heat of the night. She held the backs of her hands to her cheeks and found them warm and flushed. If she didn’t know better, she would swear she was aroused.

  “So the vampire wannabe finally shows some backbone. Big deal, he chased away our supper. Still, we can snack on the one he left behind.”

  “No,” Melina said. “I want to see this play out. I also want to know what’s so special about this boy Alejandro is protecting.”

  *

  Julian watched Melina leave and turned back to Jason, who had sat down on the ground and begun to cry out of fear and relief.

  Let Melina follow Dante. Julian couldn’t care less about that. He wanted to know more about this Miller kid. If Dante hated him, Julian decided he was someone he had to meet. If Dante was personally protecting this kid, Julian just might, put his weight behind Miller and even the odds a bit one day.

  This could be a lot of fun, he thought, as he teleported away with the sound of a whip crack. Melina could walk home. Fuck her.

  *

  “The person you are calling has their mobile phone switched off, or unavail—”

  Nicole flicked the phone away with her hand and it toppled onto the floor. She’d sent three texts to Nick already, asking if she could call and explain the situation, but after no response, she’d finally decided to bite the bullet and call. Lot of good that did her. She could not believe he could be so childish and not answer his phone, switching it off so he didn’t have to talk to her. She put her head in her hands, lamenting to herself. If this was a ploy of his, sadly, it was working. What bothered her more than his behaviour is why she cared so much, and how badly she wanted to talk to him.

  *

  Dante stood opposite the fibro and brick house located on sixty-four Bellevue Crescent. He couldn’t smell anything that might verify Jason’s story, but he could hear everything. He listened to the sounds of snoring in the front rooms, but also of a bedspring rocking back and forth. Grunting, gasping.

  “Trent…fuck… slow d
own!”

  “Shut up.”

  “God…if Adam ever finds out this happened…”

  Dante heard skin clapping against skin. Miller had put his hand over the girl’s mouth.

  “If you don’t shut up, I won’t come. If I don’t come, I get the shits. When I get the shits, I start punching things.”

  “No…wait. STO—”

  Dante did not listen anymore. He didn’t want to, or need to. What he did hear was too much: three quick slams of a fist into a face and Miller removing himself from the bed, muttering obscenities and cruel taunts, pulling back on his trousers. Crying, whimpering. Fear. Worse still, there was nothing Dante could do to help her from out here, and he could not enter without an invitation. One of the more annoying vampire “rules”.

  Jason had said the trouble had started with a girl both Miller and Nick wanted. But here Miller was, screwing some unknown girl who clearly meant nothing to him, which indicated that the girl Nick liked also meant nothing to him. Miller had beaten Nick down and would’ve killed him if given the chance, merely because Nick was an obstacle for this obnoxious kid getting his dick wet. From what Dante just heard, Miller was also a girl basher and probable opportunistic rapist.

  Dante had given his word to Dougie that he would never kill another human. His mentor had always told him it was easy to take a life, but saving one was where real power showed itself. Whatever happened with Jason, Dante would ensure Nick’s safety. That was paramount. But this Miller kid was having a greater effect on him then he was worth. For the first time in almost a century, Dante was not resisting the urge to kill, and that didn’t bother him.

  Chapter 20

  Alpha Centurion

  The wolf opened its eyes, scanning left to right. Straining. Sensing. Struggling. Weak? Yes. The eyes alone were free to move without pain. The chest expanded slightly. The nose and ears absorbed the atmosphere. Chemicals, unpleasant. What were they? The wolf concentrated. Morphine. Disinfectant. Urine—its own, collected in a bag nearby. Saliva on graphite. A human was near, taking notes. Lights bright. Sounds, distant steady beeps. Mumbles of television coming from a far corner. Quiet, calm human voices in the corridor. Good sounds. Safe sounds. Hospital.