Into Death's Arms

by Mary Milligan

  The Vampire caught my eyes and held them for a moment, desire thwarted was easy to read there. My breath caught again and for a moment, I thought he would try to take my blood despite the fact that my father was ready to behead him. “But I want to know, Caden.” He said my father’s name like he was one of his friends not an enemy. “Why do you have possession of this child, why wasn’t she given to the council?” he smiled at my father maliciously. “Does she know the price you paid to keep her?”

  “Enough,” my father shouted making me wince. I had never heard that tone come from him.

  The Vampire smiled evily, “Did they forgive you when you lost your pretty little AoLi, Cade, or did you go crawling back to them on your hands and knees like the good fucking AoD?”

  My father physically flinched.

  For a moment the hate in the Vampires features softened, as if seeing my fathers pain was too much for him. He shook it off quickly. “How fortuitous for you that you could go back? Must be nice.” He snarled, “of course they’d take you back. Caden Reece, golden boy.” He spat. Then abruptly he let go of me, and I fell on my butt into the dirt. I had spent too much time on my toes, but I was very happy to be able to breathe again.

  My father stepped around Tameron, blade still held high. What did he mean, condemned? I was so confused. I got up and stood behind my dad, feeling a little safer. Dayton Tameron put his hands up in a submissive gesture. Well as submissive as something with claws and fangs could get. He didn’t look at my father. His eyes were all for me. He mouthed ‘later’ at me. Then he stepped into the shadows behind him and disappeared. Fuck I didn’t know he could do that either. I was so out of my league and scared shitless.

  The crowed watched us all open-mouthed. Excited whispers reached my ears as dad hustled me to the jeep so quickly I nearly fell, twice. We rode home in silence. Which was good; because I didn’t really know what to say. My dad radiated anger, and I was full of questions.

  My dad knew Dayton Tameron? Why hadn’t he hunted the Vampire down and killed him yet? Why did he go after all other Vampires with a singular purpose but failed to swing at Tameron tonight? My head hurt. I put it down to way too much time without oxygen.

  He pulled into the garage. “How bad is your throat?” The bright fluorescent garage lights came on. He was studying my throat from where he sat. The garage smelled like laundry detergent and fabric softener.

  I was feeling pretty good considering I’d been picked up by the throat. I should at the very least be having some difficulty swallowing but I felt fine. “It’s okay,” I said genuinely surprised. I touched my throat with my hand to try to feel some external sign of the assault.

  Dad raised an eyebrow. “Let me see,” he demanded, tilting my chin and glaring at my throat. I leaned my head back and moved my hand away so he could get a good look at it. He leaned over me his hair tickled me. “No bruising,” he made a confused expression.

  “Yeah I think I’m alright,” I certainly didn’t expect to be alright. What else did you say when your father was towering over you looking for evidence of your run in with the city’s most dangerous Vampire?

  He touched my throat carefully. “You shouldn’t be,” he whispered roughly. “You should be dead.” He ran his hand though his hair, which was a sure sign he was aggravated. “He’s almost killed me twice, and I’m a full AoD.” If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought my dad was pissed at me for being okay. I hadn’t known Tameron had nearly killed him. When had that happened? I had lots of questions, but he pulled me to him and held me tight. All the air left me in a big whoosh. It seemed to be my night for asphyxiation. “You are so vulnerable now. Two more months, and I won’t have to worry like this.” He wasn’t talking to me, and I knew it, so I just held him back, you know one of those moments where you know you are truly loved. Oh, and I took shallow breaths because those mammoth arms didn’t allow for much else. After several moments of gasping like a guppy, he let me go. I sucked in air. I was getting a little dizzy with all the strangling that had been going on tonight.

  “So,” I tried to sound light, but I was terrified and confused, and this man knew me better than anyone else did. “Why do you think I’m still above ground?”

  He sighed heavily and went to the door. It was cold in the garage, and I was grateful to be going in. “I don’t know. They exposed themselves, and they are trying real hard to make themselves look innocent. It wouldn’t do to start out by choking the life out of young women in front of twenty or so witnesses, right?” He said, unlocking the door. “Maybe they’ll be good for a little while,” he paused and gave me a dire look, “at least in public.”

  I nodded. That had to be it. Why else would the Vampire have spared me? “One of the Vamps has his eye on Laurna. We have to take him out,” I said into the silence of our home.

  He nodded. “We’ll take care of it.” He walked like the air around him had suddenly gotten too heavy for him to carry. I went to the freezer. We always have ice cream after a fight. This was different because it was the first time I’d actually fought as well. I didn’t want to think about how badly I’d sucked at it. I’d watched my dad a couple of times in the last two years but I’d never been allowed to participate. Now I knew why. I sucked at it.

  “I broke his knee, he was a big bastard.” I tippy toed up and held my hand way above my head to demonstrate the giant Vampire’s size. “I didn’t have time to finish him. I was trying to get out of there before Tameron showed,” I said regretfully.

  He smiled. “Yeah?” His tone conveying pride. That’s my daddy. He was proud I’d broken someones knees. I nodded then ladled massive amounts of cookies and cream ice cream into my bowl, then his.

  “Snapped backward made a messy sounding crunch, but I knew Tameron was coming, so I didn’t have time to finish him. I concentrated on escape. You saw how well that worked out for me,” I shrugged, why did I keep repeating that line about Tameron? He’s got it already Macy. Give it a rest, I told myself.

  He chewed his mouthful and then said, “That was smart running from Tameron. If you took out the other one once, you can almost assuredly do it again. But Tameron, he is in a league of his own.” He shook his head again. “I don’t understand why he didn’t hurt you. I’m thankful, believe me, but I don’t get it.” He admitted candidly. “I’ve never seen anyone just walk away from him without a scratch like that.”

  I didn’t get it either. I was thankful too. I had thought I was going to die tonight. I could still feel Tameron’s cool hand wrapped around my throat. He was so strong, but more than that I could feel the was his touch cooled my skin. I could feel how his thumb had caressed my jawline.

  Even more disturbing, I could still feel his hot mouth descending on my throat. Before bed I checked myself in the mirror twice and though I could still feel his hands on me there was no physical evidence of his touch on my skin. I said my prayers and went to bed. I dreamt of Vampires who were hotter than they had any right to be. It was all mind control, right?

  Damn Dayton Tameron anyway.

  Chapter 3

  I woke up pissed. I followed the smell of coffee to the living room. Only there was a priest sitting in our overstuffed green armchair and my dad was giving him coffee.

  The little grey man blinked up at me. I blinked back. Apparently, we spoke the same language when it came to embarrassment. I ran back into my room to get dressed. My p.j.s consisted of a tiny pair of carebear, grumpy bear shorts and a light blue tank top. Also being half naked in front of the clergy was not high on my list of things to do.

  I shimmied into a pair of low-rise jeans and searched for button up that covered all my best parts. It was a search that took me a little bit of time. I was raised by a man who didn’t pay much attention to my wardrobe. As long as they didn’t throw me out of school, he was good. Actually, my dad had a very liberal viewpoint for a parent. If I wanted to date, fine. I wanted sex, whatever. We couldn’t get human diseases, and an Ao had a real hard time gettin
g pregnant by anyone but their significant other. For an AoD, that would be his or her AoLi. Therefore, he didn’t have a lot of the concerns other parents did. That was one of the reasons there were so few of us. Take out one half of the pair and you cripple the other’s ability to breed. Also, drugs weren’t on my big list of things to do, as I knew there were monsters lurking in the dark. You tend not to run into the judgment-impaired state when you know one of your hallucinations could possibly eat you.

  I brushed my hair and my teeth and checked myself in the mirror. My eyes were wide and a little dark around the edges from the whole being strangled by a Vampire thing last night but the green of my irises still looked bright. Okay, I had to admit the truth to myself. It wasn’t just being strangled, but more that I didn’t sleep because the gorgeous bloodsucker had been present in most of my dreams. Damn Tameron again.

  I’d somehow managed to bust my bottom lip last night. Swollen it made me look like I’d had Botox or something. I mean my lips were way too big to begin with, but bruised I had to laugh at myself. I looked like one of those movie stars the tabloids make fun of. “How much is too much?” I asked my image in the mirror. Finally, I made sure I spritzed myself with just a smidge of perfume, and then I went back into the living room.

  “I understand your viewpoint Mike. I really do, but the answer is still no,” my father finished.

  The priest also pursed his lips. “She is in grave danger. It is your duty to see she is protected,” he sighed, obviously irritated with my father. A sentiment I could usually get behind. Caden Reece was one of the most stubborn men alive. “Caden, what would Iris have wanted?” Whoa? Were they talking about me? I wasn’t terribly happy about being left out, especially if I was the topic of discussion. I made what my father always called my petulant face at the man’s back. I realized that in the world of Ao, technically I was still a child, but here in the real world, I was twenty and more than capable of making decisions on my own.

  My father glared at the man. Was it okay to glare at priests? I didn’t think so. “Iris and I discussed this when she was born. I believe you know that.” My dad took a sip of his coffee. Yup, they were talking about me.

  “Um, want to let her know what we’re discussing?” I asked, plopping myself down on the couch. I crossed my legs and made myself comfortable. This was going to be interesting.

  Father Micheal looked at my dad questioningly and Dad shrugged his big shoulders. “Go ahead, she’ll tell you the same.” My father and I had a lot in common including that unbearable stubborn streak. Whatever they’d been discussing, he was sure I’d take his side. After all, he’d raised me.

  Father Micheal looked at me with his grey eyes full of hope. That hope made me twitchy; I wasn’t comfortable with people pinning their hopes on me. “We want you to come live under the protection of the church.”

  I was proud of me. I managed not to laugh directly in his serious round face. I wanted to ask who the “we” were, but I knew. It was the Ao council. They all had Ao blood somewhere in their veins. It enabled them to see the Shadow-born. It’s hard to be able to see the truth and not try to do something about it.

  I put on my most serene face and said with all the respect I could muster. “I really appreciate the invitation, but no thanks,” I re-crossed my legs. They’d gone numb.

  Micheal frowned. It looked like he had about six frowns. He looked very priestly in his disappointment with me. I felt like confessing, and I hadn’t done anything wrong. Well nothing worth confessing. Did naughty dreams about evil bloodsuckers count as sins of the flesh? I sure hoped not. How would I confess that? “I don’t think you understand,” he said like I was a five-year-old child. “Now that the Shadow-born have exposed themselves the Ao, especially the uninitiated Ao, are in severe danger.” Duh, I thought, weren’t we always in danger? I mean there were monsters killing us in our sleep while we were still weak. It was kind of their forte. Did he think I was stupid? Well obviously, but I mean really, I lived with the AoD of San Francisco, he didn’t think I knew it was dangerous? We were so few in number usualy there was only one AoD per city. Some major cities didn’t even merit one depending on their Shadowborn population. I knew Tokyo had two but there was only one more AoD on the entire island.

  This time I did laugh. “Yeah Father,” I hesitated, “Mike is it?” I couldn’t quite believe his name was so undignified but he nodded enthusiastically so I guessed it was. “I am a little smarter than that. I happen to know that in the last fifteen years, the church has lost no less than twenty-two prospective Ao under their protection. This year, only three new Ao will be initiated and that includes me.” I scrunched up my face at him. “I think my father is doing a bang up job of keeping me safe.” The priest’s mouth had fallen open. Oops, I guess he didn’t think I’d give him the facts straight out like that. Besides I was used to living here and doing things my own way. Admittedly once I went through the ascension, I would have to allow the Ao Council to tell me where to go, but I wasn’t going to be treated like a child. I’d go in as a fully initiated adult.

  My father smiled in triumph. “I told you Mike,” he said evenly and maybe even a little smugly.

  “Caden… I…” Father Mike took a deep breath and exhaled hard. “I owe you my life.” Huh? News to me, I didn’t even know Father Mike existed before today. I was getting a lot of new information about my father lately, and I was kind of pissed he’d kept me in the dark for so long. Maybe Father Mike wasn’t the only one who still saw me as a child. “So if you insist on this path, I think we only have only one choice. I think we should do the ascension ritual right away. I don’t think two months is going to make a difference, and I’ve talked to Deanna, and she’s willing to help us.” This time my father’s mouth fell open. I liked that. The last time I saw my dad react with surprise was when I told him Laurna’s mom was taking me shopping for bras in the fifth grade. It had been awhile.

  He actually sputtered, “Mike, you could be…” He glanced at me. It was pretty obvious he didn’t want me to hear what he had to say, but I wasn’t going anywhere. “You know the punishment for disobeying the council, and I have to tell you your life span is a great deal shorter than mine.” He whispered in a small voice and shook his head. “And how on Earth did you wrangle Deanna into this?” I felt like I’d swallowed a live goldfish. Go through the ritual early, I thought, but I could die! On the other hand, with the Vamps coming out I could die anyway. Especially with Dayton Tameron knowing exactly who and what I was. Fuck, talk about being stuck between a rock and hard place or a befanged place as it were. What was the punishment for disobeying the council? Was this about what Tameron had said about my dad?

  Father Mike looked sheepish. “It was her idea. She’s afraid the other Ao will try to take Macyn by force.” Great the bad guys wanted to eat me the good guys wanted to kidnap me, being me sucked!

  I could actually see my father’s blood pressure rise. Red rose through his neck and up to his face straight to his forehead he looked like a cartoon. I could almost hear the temperature rising sound they always played you know the one that ends with steam shooting out the ears accompanied by a whistling sound. “By God, they will not,” My father roared standing as he yelled! I’m embarrassed to say I jumped. My dad was a big man; big men can get loud, really loud. I thought maybe the neighbors jumped too.

  The priest smiled slowly. He’d looked as pleased as punch. “I thought you’d feel that way. Deanna will arrive at ten tomorrow we can do the ritual then,” he smiled brightly. “My luggage is in the sedan I borrowed.” He held out the keys. They jingled in his hand. Just like that, I was going to go through the ascension ritual in one day. I felt sick.

  Pop looked pointedly at me then at the keys. Great tomorrow we’re going to try to kill you but today, could you please play bellboy? I grabbed them and headed outside. I stomped my feet like an angry child but the carpet was so thick it didn’t make any sound. My cell rang as soon as the sunshine hit my face. The air smel
led good crisp and clear. “Mace,” I answered.

  “Spill,” Laurna’s voice was harsh. Damn I was hoping the Vamps had mind wiped her but no such luck. I was kind of surprise but I guess they were serious about the whole let’s tell everybody we’re monsters thing.

  I frowned at the phone. “Huh,” I said noncommittally.

  “Damn it Macyn there are real live fucking Vampires in the world and you fucking knew it. I gave one of them my cell number, oh my God! I’ve got to change my number.” She was breathing hard probably pacing, she was a pacer. It was funny because Laurna was one of those people who believes swearing is a sign of low intelligence. I always grunt and tell her, ‘me no smart like blond girl’. She gave up trying to change me a couple of years ago.

  “Oh, yeah,” I said softly and started moving toward the car again.

  I heard her come to a halt on the other side. “Oh yeah, Oh. Fucking. Yeah, that’s all you have to say to me,” she screamed furiously damaging my hearing.

  I sighed and popped the trunk to Mike’s sedan. “You want to come over?” I asked I didn’t want to talk about this over the phone. I was going to break the rules but, what the hell; the Vamps had already broken the rules, right? Besides what were they going to do deny me my birthright? That wasn’t likely and I needed some support.

  She huffed, “Yeah I’m coming,” I heard her keys scrap her dresser as she grabbed them.

  I took Father Mike’s suitcase and two garment bags out of the trunk. How many outfits does a catholic priest need anyway? No, that was not the beginning of a bad joke. “Bring me a Red Bull,” I asked I was going to need it.