The trip out to Beverley wasn’t too bad. Traffic was a bit on the light side during the late morning heading out of the city. His sports car was left in the garage today. Driving a black Escape let him bring more of the items he needed as well as giving him mostly blacked out windows that wouldn’t draw as much attention. Blacked out windows on sports cars gave police a different idea of what you were up to, but SUVs with blacked out windows were a dime a dozen.
He parked within sight of the house this time and tried to sense who was in there. Ten werewolves all on the main floor and second story, that was different from the day before. Not one wolf was in the basement, but the presence that didn’t fit with them was still down there. This time it still was not alone, but it was a vampire’s aura he sensed there instead.
Had there been a battle between vampires and the werewolves last night? Maybe the ones testing Marek’s defenses were working on the werewolves at the same time. If it was the same clan, then it must be bigger and stronger than they had thought.
Nick settled in to wait on the werewolves to see if they would move the girl. It wasn’t long before he sensed something happening in the basement. The vampire was exerting himself greatly. Nick thought he could hear a faint noise of hammering on metal coming from the house.
Wanting to confirm what he was hearing, the voran moved to the house to the left of the werewolves where he had used the fence the day before and became sure of it. It seemed muffled. Perhaps the wolves had tried to sound proof the basement. He wasn’t sure, but his hearing could still pick up on it.
From this distance, Nick could feel the fear in the second presence. He wished he could make out more from his sixth sense. Whether it was the girl for sure would be nice. His nose had found a trace of her smell that was the same as at the library and from the sweater Geni had brought him, a request that had left the girl looking at him funny. Nick had felt like he was some bloodhound using it for the trace of her scent and in reality that’s what he had done. The voran just didn’t need a dog to verify the smell to find her. Unlike a dog, he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that she was still in the basement just that she had been recently.
Assuming the girl was the familiar aura that he felt the fear from, Nick worried for her safety with the vampire. Had the werewolves left her to be eaten by a monster?
The banging went on for more than an hour nonstop. Nick maintained his position feeling no people home from the yard he crouched in. The fence was high enough all around to keep him from any prying eyes other than from the house, even the werewolves would not be able to see him though his scent might be a problem should they come outside. When the banging ended, Nick felt a sick feeling in his stomach. The vampire was free. Would he kill the girl or flee?
He felt new panic from the girl as the two came into conflict. Her aura weakened, but she was still alive for the moment. Then there was a new feeling. He looked to his hand as he felt the vampire die at the girl’s hands. Nick was sure of it now. This was the same girl and she was the voran from his vision. Now what was he going to do about it.
The sudden panic in the werewolves upstairs could be felt easy enough. They knew she had killed the vampire. What were they going to do with her now that they had seen what one of the voran could do?
Nick wouldn’t budge from his hiding place. He had to save the girl even if it meant rushing into a fight that the man had no way to win.
It was early afternoon before Lena awoke again. The loss of blood and release of power had wiped her out. When she opened her eyes, the girl found Vanessa watching over her. The remains of the vampire had been cleaned up while she had been mostly untouched and left in the pile she had crumpled up into.
“Well hello there, sleepy head,” the werewolf with the wild red hair greeted smiling as if they were friends. Her blue eyes revealed nothing beyond kindness. Lena was confused. This woman had been down to see her a couple times and even tried turning her into a werewolf with her bite and scratch. Other than those times, she had not visited and barely said anything to Lena. Now she seemed to want be the girl’s friend.
“What happened?” Lena asked trying to take advantage of this momentary friendship.
The woman chuckled and said, “We were hoping you would know. It looks like the vampire escaped his prison, but somehow you killed him.”
“I did what!?” she exclaimed trying to fathom such a thing. Lena had never killed anything in her life aside from a few bugs and even then she had been squeamish. Besides that, how could she, a mere girl, have killed something powerful enough to break from a steel cage. The vague memory of trying to protect herself from the vampire was still there, but how could she have killed the monster?
“We weren’t watching the cameras. We never thought the vampire could break from a cage that no werewolf had been able to escape, so there was no one watching. Most of us had gone to sleep after that fight last night, so we just assumed he would be safely locked up,” the lie came out smoothly and Lena almost believed it without hesitation. “I am so sorry, Lena, if we had known he could break free we would have left guards to prevent it. Eric and the rest of the pack were really hoping to make you one of us. We never would have risked your life if we had known.”
Lena’s eyes pulled from the girl looking on her and she realized her condition. She looked like a fire had exploded in front of her burning away her clothes and leaving her black and grey from soot and dust. The girl barely felt the cool air of the basement much to her surprise. Maybe shock or the explosion had left her numb?
Acting as if she had forgotten Lena’s nude condition, the werewolf reacted to the girl’s unasked question by smacking her head and saying, “Oh my goodness, we really need to get you cleaned up and in some new clothes. We werewolves are a bit looser on the clothing idea since we need to tear them off for a full change to a wolf. Not only would a werewolf look silly in clothes, the wolf form is drastic enough to tear free or suffocate in the restrictive cloth.
“Come, come, let’s take you upstairs and get you a nice warm bath.” She helped Lena up, who realized that she was also no longer chained to the wall. The collar had been removed while she had slept. “Charlotte!” the cry went out from the redhead as the two moved towards the stairs, “can you start the water for us?”
As she stood and tried to walk, Lena lost her balanced with dizziness. Vanessa caught her shoulders and helped keep the girl moving while talking to her all the while. The apologies and encouragement to walk continued to pour out of the werewolf to the point Lena’s swimming head virtually ignored what the redhead was saying. The girl merely focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
When they made it up the stairs, Lena noticed the rooms as she moved through them. The living room gave her sight of the front door and the vaguest thought of escape entered her head, but she was too weak to run. As it was, Vanessa half carried her to the bathroom with a nice looking tub in it. Charlotte smiled from inside the room where Lena could hear the water filling the tub. A little bit of steam was rising in the cool air already.
“How hot do you want it?” Charlotte asked with a polite smile. This werewolf had barely said anything to her as well and now she was waiting on Lena like a friend or at least a paid servant would act in those movies with rich people, Lena thought.
“Not so hot that I can’t get straight into it,” Lena answered looking longingly at the water.
Charlotte added some bath oils that wafted sweetly into the air. Some suds formed and Lena thought it looked like the best bath she could ever find. The girls helped her into the tub. Her exhaustion still kept her from walking without dizziness.
Aubrey came into view with a couple sandwiches and a glass of juice. “I thought you might be hungry. You look wiped out. You’re lucky that vampire didn’t drain you dry, but you lost some blood so this should help in recovering.”
Sinking into the warm water, Lena closed her eyes and couldn’t help but relax. The three women surrounding her
weren’t trying to hurt her. They had apologized and brought her food. Warm fuzzy feelings fogged her mind as the bath and food did their best to make the girl feel good once more.
It was cold outside. Winter seemed to want to take its time in leaving Chicago this year. Despite the cold, Nick maintained his vigil. He was determined to be there for the girl.
When she was moved from the basement, Nick was surprised. They had brought her to the main floor, a level that posed a possible escape. Most of the werewolves seemed to vacate the level when the girl was brought up in fact. Some moved to the rear of the building, but most had retreated to the second floor.
What were they doing? He wondered.
Chapter 14- Sleeping Plans
The bath and food had done wonders for Lena. They even escorted her to a bed after she dressed in a long, cotton shirt and shorts. Charlotte had taken over leading her to a bedroom that was plain in decoration with clothes pushed into piles around the edges. Whoever the room belonged to was messy. Lena didn’t care though as she slipped into the covers, a clean set of sheets she was assured by Charlotte who virtually tucked her into bed. It was the first time she had lain on something other than the cold concrete in ten days.
In moments, she had fallen asleep.
Eric and the rest of the werewolves no longer had to remain out of sight. The pack leader pulled Vanessa and Charlotte aside. They were her trainers. Just like he would have someone to help a new pack mate, Eric had set the two women to befriend and help mold her to join them.
“How do you think it’s going?” he asked.
Vanessa looked towards the room with its drawn blinds and drapes to block out much of the afternoon sunlight. “Changing to comfort and niceties seems to be pushing her to befriend and believe us. I don’t know how she’ll be after some sleep and once she recovers some of that blood she lost.”
“The girl is glad just to be out of the cage,” Charlotte nodded. “Over a week in there was tough on her. We don’t even do that to the normal new recruits.”
“She isn’t a normal recruit,” Eric snapped down on the girl. “We do have to convince her that she is one of us though. Do you think you can make her believe you, Vanessa?”
Shrugging, the woman answered, “I don’t know if the idea will stick once the full moon is here and she can’t turn into a wolf, but I think she’s weak enough now to believe just about anything if its wrapped in a nice bow. Telling her she’s a menace to her friends because she’s going to turn into a werewolf should stop her from wanting to run. We can tell her that we’ll help her through her changes.”
“Blame Ramon for it too,” Eric demanded. “Tell her that he actually made her a werewolf the first night and we were trying to break the curse by countering it with other werewolf bites. Two negatives trying to make a positive to cure her.”
The women looked at him as if he was mad. “What?” Charlotte actually asked aloud trying to comprehend this new lie.
“Tell her that when the victim of a werewolf is first cursed, a second werewolf can sometimes counter the curse with their own bite and that was actually why we kept testing her. We were trying to save her from the werewolf curse before the first full moon came along because that is when the curse is no longer breakable.”
The girls looked at him like he was daft. “She’s not going to believe that. No one’s ever put that in a movie or anything as far as I know,” Vanessa said shaking her head.
“Make her believe it. Just because it isn’t in a movie doesn’t mean she won’t believe it. Tell her it’s a little secret that only we real life werewolves know. It’s not like the girl can say we’re lying because there’s some official science book that tells her how werewolves work.”
The light went on in the both girls’ eyes.
“Not bad,” Charlotte voiced her awe at the simplicity of the idea. The two women realized what he meant. No human could prove the existence of werewolves let alone set the ground rules of how they worked. Whose answers do you believe, the people guessing or the people living it?
“What do we do when the full moon comes and she doesn’t change?” Vanessa asked looking wary.
“I think I have that figured out also. We’re taking her on the hunt.”
“But she’ll just see us change.”
The pack leader frowned at the redhead. As much as he loved Vanessa most of the time, she could also test his patience. “I told you. I have a plan for that. Now stop fighting me and do what I said.”
It was getting late in the afternoon and no new movement had happened for nearly an hour. Nick knew he couldn’t stay where he was much longer without risk of being noticed by the owners of the house returning home. He didn’t know when they would come home from work, so he figured he was on borrowed time.
The fact that the girl had been moved and left in a first floor bedroom left him confused. He didn’t sense a change in her aura to that of a werewolf, so why had they changed the way they kept her. Had the vampire messed up their plans for her or just inspired a new path? Nick wished he knew what was going on in there.
One thing he could guess from his feel of her presence was that she was sleeping and even felt content. Again, he was left wondering at what had changed. The girl could have tried to break out from that floor. Was she so afraid of the werewolves that she didn’t dare risk it? Perhaps.
Retreating back to the waiting SUV, Nick dialed up Nicola. The vampires should be awakening about now and if not they would survive an early wake up call. The woman picked up sounding happy to hear from him.
“Hey, Nicky, calling for a date night?” Nicola asked sounding bright and cheery.
Though his attention was half on the house of werewolves, Nick still chuckled at her exuberance. “Well, sort of. I actually have some information that Marek may want to know about that came up while you slept. The werewolves were attacked by a group of vampires last night. They even captured one for awhile until it was finished off this afternoon.”
“You think it was another band from the group that’s been popping up to attack us?”
“Could be. It’s even likely based off their previous attacks. The fight isn’t my only concern here though; the girl I was searching for seems to be with them.”
“Oh no, the poor girl. She won’t be able to go back to her normal life like that. What do you plan to do about her?”
Nick knew he needed to skirt the truth about Lena as long as he could, but Marek might require a stronger reason to come help the girl if they think she’s a werewolf. His senses told him that she wasn’t changed, but would they believe he could tell?
“I don’t think they’ve actually turned her yet,” the man said noticing one of the werewolves leaving through the front door. “I’m not sure why, but they haven’t. If we could just find a way to break her free from them, she might be able to go back to real life.”
“She’s seen the werewolves and vampires, you said. Marek won’t let that happen. I don’t even think you would. We can’t risk someone believing her if she talked about this.”
Knowing she was right didn’t help Nick and he knew they couldn’t send her back to school without being sure that she wouldn’t talk. Then there was the fact that he was pretty sure that she was a voran. Lena would need a mentor as much as he had needed Vivian over a century ago.
“We might be able to wipe her memory or make her believe that this was all just a nightmare brought on by the trauma of being kidnapped? No matter what is decided, I want to save her from them before it’s too late.”
With a sigh, Nicola said, “You seem a bit hung up on this girl, Nicholas. Are you sure why you’re trying to save her? People get pulled into the werewolf packs quite often; do you plan on trying to free them all? And who do you choose to save? How far up the wolf chain do you think you’ll need to go? I’m sure none of them grew up wanting to be under the werewolf’s curse. Are they all to be saved?”
“Just the one, if she hasn’t turned,” he stated fir
mly. He could feel the vibe from Nicola shift with his determination. “She’s just twenty years old, Nicola. If you were twenty-one again, wouldn’t you hope someone would save you from being turned into a vampire?”
There was a noticeable pause as the vampire thought back to her youth over seven decades ago. She had been this age when Marek had found and changed her life to undead. Could she be happy being a vampire? Would she have preferred living a normal life, having children, grandchildren? At her real age she might be on her death bed or even dead of natural causes by now, but humans were meant to have lives with beginnings and endings.
“I think it turned out ok,” Nicola started out tentatively.
“But you wouldn’t have chose this and you know it,” the man pushed again. “It’s not what we’re meant to be.”
“How do you fit into that thinking then?” she asked getting defensive.
“My kind can still die. We live longer than humans but we are still mortal. My kind seems to be nature’s way of coping with unnatural beings. I don’t think a werewolf’s curse will take anymore than a vampire’s, but we can be killed by either type.”
Again she sighed. “So what do you want me to tell Marek?” The woman knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t give up. A vampire’s immortality wasn’t enough to outlast Nick when his mind was made up.
“If we can get her free from this many werewolves without any of the clan getting hurt, I would like to try getting her out before the full moon. It’s possible that on the full moon they’ll go on the hunt and maybe forget about her long enough to swoop in and sneak her out also, but getting her out safe sooner than later would be my hope.”
“I’ll talk to him and have Marek call you back.” There was another pause before the woman said quietly, “I just wish you would call for me sometime and not for a favor.”
Nick could tell her feelings were hurt. His blood left the clan only a step from being human. That meant they were also as moody as normal humans, unlike many regular vampires who turned into cold, merciless killers. “I’ll try and make it up to you, Nicola. When this is over, we’ll go on a real date. How does that sound?”
Vorans and Vampires (Book 1): Voran the Night Guardian Page 11