Charles smiled as the Nixen song rang through the Brotherhood sanctuary again. This time it would only take out the agents who were at the Sanctuary for the first round for a couple of seconds. Charles jerked himself free from the wall. He only needed a couple of seconds to slice George’s sword through his neck. George’s head rolled to the floor. Charles felt a sense of relief. He had avenged his father’s death and helped secure safety for his family.
Charles looked down and saw that there was blood coming from his side. The knife had not completely missed his side. He felt a little woozy and slid down to the floor. A banshee screamed and then burst through the door.
****
It only took Penny a minute to compose herself this time. Penny directed banshees coming out of the Winchester with wounded. So far there had been a few serious causalities and a just a few fatalities. Most of the otherworld races were still in play, which was more than the Brotherhood could say.
She heard the screaming of the banshees coming from the house. Every few minutes the house would shake or a mysterious mist would rise from the windows.
Morrigan floated out of the front of the house with Charles in her arms.
“Charles,” Lorelei said, rushing to meet the banshee. Penny panicked as well. The fact that he being carried out by a healer was not a good sign. She couldn’t lose her human companion.
Charles,” Penny screamed. “What happened?” She looked over Charles, he was covered in blood. Some of it looked like it had been splattered on him, but the blood on his side looked like his own. Penny removed the shirt. The wound was already mostly healed.
“He’ll be okay,” Morrigan said, as she laid the boy down the ground. Penny reached to push away the strands of his curly hair that always fell into his during a fight. Then she remembered that the locks had been removed by the goblins.
“They’re gone, remember?” Charles said, opening his eyes. He smiled weakly. “I was thinking about keeping this hair style. What do you think?”
“So it takes coming close to death to make your humor come out?” Penny punched him in the shoulder.
“Ah, I was never close to death,” Charles said. “I’m just happy because I cut George’s head off!” He smiled broadly and then looked at Lorelei.
“I’m so proud of you,” Lorelei said. She pushed Penny out of the way and gave Charles a well-deserved passionate kiss.
“I’ll just be over here,” Penny said. She left the lovers and went to check on other patients.
The Master crashed through the large window in the front of the house. He was followed by Thomas carrying Penny’s grandmother and two dozen or more Brotherhood agents. The Master deftly sliced through about six agents with his rotating scimitars, but they needed some help if Thomas was going to get Penny’s grandmother away safely.
Morrigan let out the most horrific scream that Penny had ever heard. It was followed by the stench of rotten eggs, rotting bodies, and spoiled food. Lorelei reached over and covered Penny’s ears. Lorelei sang her song with Morrigan and immediately the agents writhed over in pain, blood dripping from their ears. The Master quickly cut down the rest of the ensuing agents and escorted Thomas and Penny’s grandmother to the relative safety of the hidden triage.
Thomas placed the older woman on the ground.
“She just passed out from fright,” Thomas said, trying to make her more comfortable.
Penny say next to her grandmother. She smiled. It had been a long time since she actually saw her.
“We’re winding up,” Thomas said. “The human authorities are already on their way. The Brotherhood doesn’t have many agents left and I think that they will all be arrested.”
Charles propped himself up. “So, it’s over? I mean really over?”
“All of the other houses came into help. I estimate that there aren’t any more than a couple dozen left everywhere in the world.”
“Thomas your plan was amazing,” Penny said throwing her arms around his neck.
“Alright, alright, but we do need to get out of here,” Thomas said, removing Penny from his neck. “Charles you take Grandma back to her house. Penny you stay with Morrigan while they get the wounded out. I’ll oversee the removal of the otherworld creatures.”
Charles stood up and picked the old woman off the ground. He headed a couple blocks down to a waiting car. It was going to be a long ride back to Michigan.
Penny helped Morrigan get the rest of the wounded out as she heard police sirens in the background. She looked back to see the last of her friends leaving the Winchester and Thomas shooting several fire bullets into house. As the creatures rode away, Penny saw smoke billowing from the direction of the Winchester. She hoped that Thomas had gotten everyone out okay.
(CHAPTER 12) Sometimes Things Work Out
“Penny, your grandmother will still love you,” Thomas said, reassuring Penny.
“But I ran away,” Penny said, looking out the window at her grandmother’s house. The last time she was here, she had walked out of the front door in the middle of the night with a small suitcase in order to join the Brotherhood. She hadn’t seen her grandmother in almost two years.
“Because you had a run in with vampires,” Thomas said. He pulled a hood over his head to protect from the sunlight and put his favorite pair of shades over his eyes. He jumped out of the car and went around to Penny’s side. He opened the door for her, trying to encourage her to get out of the car. “And now so has she.”
“She’s about to get another one,” Penny said as she slowly unbuckled her seatbelt.
“Plus, we didn’t just massacre the Brotherhood to get her back so you can just sit in your car sat outside of her house moping,” Thomas said, grabbing Penny’s hand.
Penny looked at the house again. It was still the same as the day that she left it. The house was still the same from her childhood. The two story house had old fashioned black shutters standing out from the stark white house. Her grandmother always had seasonal flowers in the beds just in front of the house and a few potted plants on the staircase leading up to the front door. One year, Penny and her sister had helped her grandmother plant one of the pots. She was couldn’t have been more seven. And now she was grown and her sister was dead; killed by vampires.
“I know,” Penny said and sighed.
“Charles is already in there with her,” Thomas said. “Apparently, she’s been showing her gratitude with cowboy cookies?”
“She made cowboy cookies?” Penny’s eyes perked up.
“Yeah, I guess that means something to you,” Thomas said, holding Penny’s hand.
“They’re my favorite,” Penny said. “They’re kind of like an everything cookie: oatmeal, raisins, coconut, chocolate chips, nuts, craisins.”
“Well, they’re Chuck’s favorite now too.”
Penny sprinted up the stairs to the front door. She hesitated with her hand on the door knob. Was she supposed to knock or just go in the house? She looked back at Thomas. “Does my grandmother know that you are a vampire?”
“Um, yes,” Thomas said, cringing. “We met before>”
“That doesn’t sound good…”
“Well, I did save her, but um, I think I was a little scary,” Thomas said as he grabbed the door handle and opened the door.
“Great,” Penny said, peeking her head in the house. “Gramma?”
“Penny? Penny is that you?” Penny’s grandmother said running to the front door.
Thomas hid behind the door while Penny gave her grandmother a big hug. “Yes, Gramma, it’s me,” Penny said, holding her tiny grandmother in her arms.
“I thought that I would never you again,” her grandmother said. “When those awful men came and got me, I thought I was done for.”
“I’m really sorry about that gramma,” Penny said. “My life has been kind of crazy.”
“Yes, I know,” Gramma said. “That nice young man in there told me all about some of it. Is he your boyfriend?”
“N
o,” Penny said, trying to keep from smiling. She heard Thomas stifle a giggle on the other side of the door. “We broke up.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. He’s a nice boy; But you two are still talking so I can’t guess that things are going too badly,” Gramma said, continuing to be nosy.
“Penny dumped me for my brother,” Charles said, appearing in the doorway. He was holding a cookie in one hand and glass of lemonade in the other. He bit off another piece of the cookie and waved at Penny.
“What? I thought you said that the rest of your family was vampires,” Gramma said. She looked back at Penny. “I’m sorry; this whole vampire thing is a little much for me.” Penny’s grandmother sat down in a chair by the side of the hall. She put her head in her hands. “So does this mean your boyfriend is a vampire?”
Penny glared at Charles, giving him the silent “Shut up you insensitive jerk” look.
“Wait until you meet Charles’s new girlfriend,” Thomas said, still hiding behind the door. “She’s a mermaid.” Thomas laughed again. Penny was glad that Thomas broke the ice first.
“Oh, did you bring someone else with you?” Gramma said. She didn’t get out of her seat.
“Yes, Gramma, Thomas. My boyfriend and Charles’s big brother,” Penny said, looking back at the door. She was a little unsure of how to introduce them. Especially considering that Thomas had already met her grandmother.
“Oh well let him in here so I can meet him,” Gramma said, getting off the chair and heading toward the door.
“Well, you’ve actually met him before,” Penny said, shifting her weight uneasily. “He saved you while you were with those bad men.”
Penny’s grandmother stopped. She obviously remembered her rescue. Penny wondered what exactly had happened at the rescue that made her grandmother so uneasy to see Thomas again. Penny remembered the first time she had seen Thomas fight. It was a frightening thing to behold. Thomas was one of the most ruthless and calculated fighters she knew if someone he cared about was in trouble.
“Please don’t be afraid of me,” Thomas said, still staying on the porch. Gramma poked her head out of the door slowly. She starred at Thomas for a minute and then stepped out onto the porch. Penny and Charles followed.
“Well, I would have thanked you earlier for saving me, but you scared me to death,” Penny‘s grandmother said and then gave Thomas a pat on the shoulder. “You look much…nicer now than you did before…with the fangs.”
“I’m terribly sorry about that, Gramma,” Thomas said, taking her small hand in his. “I just get very upset when someone threatens my family.”
“Well, how about we all go inside for a bite to eat,” Gramma said and then looked apologetically at Thomas. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t attempting a bad joke, it’s just what I always say. I made some sandwiches.”
“I heard something about Cowboy cookies,” Penny said as she walked back into the house.
“Oh yes,” Gramma said with a smile, I made several batches with Charles’s help this morning.”
“Chuck? Cooking?” Thomas said.
Charles punched Thomas in the shoulder gain. Charles flinched when his fist came in contact with Thomas’s shoulder. “I can cook…If I want to.”
“I hope your better at baking than you are with punching,” Thomas said, walking passed the group of humans and into the kitchen.
“I guess being separate species doesn’t keep the brotherly fighting at bay,” Gramma said, pulling out turkey sandwiches from the fridge.
“No Ma’am,” Charles said, pulling out plates from the cupboard.
“I guess that explains why your brother stole your girlfriend,” Gramma said. She stopped for a minute and looked out the window. “I remember you two girls fighting over boys all the time.”
Penny smiled at the thought. Even though she wanted to strangle her sister for stealing all of her boyfriends, she now remembered those fights fondly.
“No actually, I stole Penny in the beginning,” Charles said, setting the table. Gramma looked up and shook her head. She was old enough to have seen many fights of siblings over boyfriends and girlfriends. But the siblings always seemed to stay together and the boyfriends and the girlfriends always come and go.
“So, what were you two talking about all morning,” Penny asked, setting out the cups on the table. “Gramma seems to not be pretty far behind on information for you guys spending all morning baking cookies together.”
“Oh, I was just hearing lots of Penny as I child stories,” Charles said. “Saw lots of pictures.” Charles winked at Penny.
“Oh goodness,” Penny said. She rolled her eyes.
“Pictures?” Thomas sat down on a kitchen chair and put his feet up. “I want to see pictures.”
“Oh, I’ll be sure to show you after dinner,” Gramma said. She laid the platter of sandwiches in the middle of the table. “Thomas dear, would you mind grabbing the chips on the counter over there?”
“Sure,” Thomas said, hopping off the chair. He grabbed the chips, got a bowl out of the cabinet, and poured the chips in the bowl.
“Do you eat?” Gramma asked Thomas.
“Yes, but not chips,” Thomas said, avoiding looking at Penny’s grandmother.
Penny knew that Thomas didn’t like talking about his vampire tendencies. They reminded him that he was a monster to many people. Penny didn’t really like to think about Thomas’s diet either, so she changed the subject.
“Hey Gramma,” Penny said, putting an arm around her grandmother’s waist. “Do you think that you could give the cowboy cookie recipe to Thomas? He’s one of the best cooks that I know. In fact, he should give his recipe for meatloaf. It’s my favorite meal of his.”
Gramma sat down at the table after she finished putting the rest of the meal on the table.
Penny grabbed a sandwich from the platter and bit into it before she bothered to fill up the rest of her plate. She was starving. The banshees fed her, but the food was terrible and the on and off stench of rotting corpses over the last few days didn’t do anything to increase her appetite.
“Goodness sakes Penny, don’t the vampires feed you?” Gramma said. She passed a bowl of fruit salad to Penny.
“The vampires do and so do the goblins,” Penny said between bites of the sandwich, “but I’ve been with the banshees. They don’t have food really.” Penny stopped to take another bite of her sandwich. “Plus they smell like dead bodies.”
Penny’s grandmother wrinkled her nose and then looked at Charles in disbelief.
“There were a lot of different creatures that went into saving you from the Brotherhood,” Thomas said. He smiled at gramma, trying to encourage her to loosen up some and trust him.
The gang ate their food and caught up on old news. Penny’s grandmother filled her in on news from the town. Penny’s old boyfriend had married her best friend. Old George from down the street finally passed away. And the school superintendent was caught having an affair with one of the cheerleaders.
Penny enjoyed hearing about the old news. It was the humdrum drivel of gossip that she had missed. It made her feel almost normal even though she sat at a table with a vampire.
“Penny I am very proud of you,” Gramma said. “I am sorry that I didn’t believe you before.”
Penny just smiled. She could stay with her grandmother again, just like nothing had ever happened. Well, almost like nothing had ever happened. There was that pesky vampire that followed her around like a love sick puppy, his angst ridden vampire sister, and the kooky German mermaid. And Charles. There was always Charles. This was her family and she was happy to have them all in her life.
If you enjoyed reading “Charles’ Choice” (or even if you didn’t) please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com or wherever else you may have purchased the book.
Thanks,
Annette J. Archer
Titles by Annette J. Archer
- Savior (by Annette J. Archer)
Angel (Angie) is a shy, quiet and
somewhat awkward girl lost in the jungle that is middle school. Even Mason finds her a little awkward the first few times he sees her. Being the new guy in the school he is intrigued as to why she doesn’t seem to have any friends and sits alone even at lunch.
After a Science class in which they are paired together Mason decides to find out about Angel. Despite her obvious choice of avoiding social interaction in school something about her intrigues him.
It takes a while for Angel to open up but soon Mason finds out why she is the way she is. Mason is flabbergasted by what he hears but has promised not to tell anyone about it. The problem is it may one day cost Angel her wellbeing and ultimately her life.
Mason must now take it upon himself to be Angel’s ‘Savior’.
Purchase “Savior” from the Amazon Kindle Store @ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009KYMV90
- Miracles (sequel to “Savior”) by Annette J. Archer
In Miracles Angel finally gets to meet her long lost brother. Her relationship with Mason hits the rocks as they both struggle to come to grips with the feelings they have for each other. Even harder is communicating those feelings.
Purchase “Miracles” from the Amazon Kindle Store @ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009L4OFLQ
- Penny’s Choice (by Annette J. Archer)
Nobody believes Penny when she says she sees Vampires and Werewolves. Including her family. Even after her family is killed by some of them nobody believes her. Even her own grandmother who she moves in with.
Now all Penny wants is revenge. The only way she can get this is by joining “The Brotherhood”. An organisation that fights against Vampires. Just one thing, they are not what she expects to find.
Charles is her mentor/trainer at the Brotherhood. He just happens to have lost his family in a similar manner to Penny. Oh yeah, and he just happens to be very good looking.
Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice) Page 10