The single lift of the hairs settled Jose back down almost meekly. Lena could see that there was a definite pecking order to the pack. It had been similar among the men under Eric, who led the pack by strength and intelligence. As powerful as Logan was, he was merely a number two to the second house’s top dog, Terrell. Their leader had gone over to see Eric and help fix some of the damage like the front window of the other house.
“Would you boys just settle down?” Charlotte added without glancing at her brother. Both pretty, Lena could see that they fed off of each other’s strength. She was surprised they had lived in separate houses.
Miguel was calm as he looked at Lena again evaluating her, she thought. “You have to admit she’s probably even prettier than you, Charlotte. We can’t fault him for simply admitting it.”
The brunette frowned. “I don’t doubt that, but he didn’t have to be rude about it.” She turned her eyes to Lena and added, “Sorry, to be talking about you like you aren’t here, Lena. You’re new meat and pretty, of course, so you’re bound to interest the boys.
“They’re all talk though, because they knew if they tried something stupid there are consequences and more wolves to enforce the rules,” she finished with a warning glance to the men on the couch.
“Yeah, sorry,” Jose said sounding only vaguely apologetic. “My bad.”
Shrugging, Lena turned away to look out the window again. This time it was to get away from the eyes still on her. Looking at the black vehicle only a few houses away, the girl seemed to draw a bit of strength from the presence. Like a guardian angel, he watched over her, but could he truly help her if one of the wolves tried something? She shivered and not with the cold though she was barefoot and wearing just the dress, since she had come inside the house.
Not for the first time, Lena wondered how she could possibly live in this world of werewolves. Knowing there were vampires lurking around didn’t make her feel safe outside the house either, but she wasn’t exactly comfortable with her new pack mates. Only that one in the black SUV leant any comfort to Lena and she was supposed to be afraid that he would kidnap her back from the werewolves.
Footsteps padded quietly to the girl with the TV to mask their sound, but Lena had felt Charlotte moving towards her. The radar seemed to be locked into the on position, but she didn’t mind. It was a strange comfort being able to feel those around you without having to even see them.
Hands settled warmly on her shoulders and Charlotte’s breath moved against her hair from the right. “Are you all right? Jose won’t hurt you. Really. You’re safe with us. You’re one of us now.”
Lena turned to look up at the slightly taller girl. With a sigh, she tried to sound positive and replied, “I know. It’ll just take some getting used to.”
The taller woman nodded. “It took a bit for me to get used to also. Logan was the one to scratch me after he was turned. It wasn’t his fault. He was under the influence of the wolf for his first full moon, but once I was infected he brought me to Eric. They used the cage for me. Unfortunately, Logan had managed to escape from it not knowing what he was.
“The pack was smaller then, but it was still strange to be living with people that were strangers to me, yet they were more like me than anyone else. Going out on the hunt and stripping in front of the others before changing takes a bit of getting used to as well,” she added with a blush.
Logan’s eyes stared at the TV looking through it. The story wasn’t something he was proud of either apparently.
If Charlotte had been turned while he was out of control, Lena wondered what or who had distracted the wolf from killing her. She had a feeling that it was a touchy subject and would have avoided asking despite her morbid curiosity, but the werewolf alleviated the question.
After a quick glance to her brother, she said, “Our parents were killed when the wolf came out. He couldn’t control himself. It’s why we go to the woods and go on the hunt. Killing deer in the middle of the night is a lot better than spending it in a cage in a basement, besides the pack is too large to have that many cages anyway.”
“We hunt as a pack and live as a pack,” Miguel stated from the couch. “Eric and the others that have turned us into a pack make sure that everyone is safe and happy as possible. No one knows where he got the money to buy the houses, but we have beds to sleep in and a place to get warm meals.”
Min spoke up saying, “You’ll find that werewolves don’t really require much beyond that. We hit the woods to run free, but come back to our homes.”
Lena heard their words and even felt they believed them. Still she felt uneasy. If the wolf overrode reason like that, so much so that a man would kill his family and turn his sister, she was sure that this was definitely a curse. Curses were best avoided, but that was no longer an option for her. Two nights from now, the girl would become a wolf against her will and run with the pack.
Chapter 17- Girlfriend
A man of his word, Nick was home before Nicola even rose from her day’s sleep. She woke and came out wearing nothing but one of his button-up shirts. Not every button was done, but the pretty blond still managed modesty despite her sexy attire.
“You’re back,” the vampire stated with a soft smile. Her gray eyes took him in and seemed to look deep into his soul. It was one of the traits of a vampire to be able to use their eyes to control humans. He wasn’t human, not quite, so such tricks didn’t affect him, but Nicola was beautiful and intelligent. Her looks triggered something in Nick that he honestly never felt with anyone else, human, vampire or voran.
Smiling back at the woman as she sauntered into the room to grab a cup from his kitchen cupboard, Nick watched as Nicola poured a cup of water to be heated in the microwave. “I wasn’t sure you would notice. You seem like a deep sleeper.”
The blond brushed back her hair from her face and strode over to Nick. Those gray eyes sparkled as she looked up at his face. That content little smile played at her lips before she pulled him down to kiss on the lips. Her skin was cool, but the kiss was still sensual and intense despite its brevity. She took his hand as if to kiss it and asked for permission with her eyes, before biting into her favorite spot between the thumb and forefinger. Nicola didn’t take much as usual. She only required a few drops to avoid the hazards of being a vampire.
After the suckling, Nicola wiped her lips, licking her hand free of the drips of blood. A second kiss revealed that his blood had made her warmer to the touch, but it was no more intense than the first.
“Sorry,” she apologized, “I haven’t had any blood for two days and the exercise last night has me feeling peckish.”
He nodded. The girl walked back to the microwave as it beeped and took the hot water out to dip in a tea bag. Nick wasn’t a big tea or coffee drinker, but he had learned to keep some around for visitors.
Taking a glass for himself, the man poured some orange juice and drank it down. Putting down the glass still partly filled, he asked, “Toast or cereal?”
“I can get it,” she replied and opened the cupboard holding his cereal. Getting on tip toe, Nick marveled at her dancer’s legs, so shapely and yet strong. Nicola must have felt his gaze and grinned as she turned to catch him in the act. “Enjoying the show?”
Holding up his hand, the thumb and forefinger nearly closed, he added, “A little bit.”
The girl placed a bit of a pout on her lips and wriggled her hips a little as her feet twisted in place. “Just a little bit? Well, then I must not be trying hard enough.”
Raising his hands palm out to ward her off, Nick laughingly replied, “Ok, ok, I give. You’re legs look great just like the rest of you.”
“Hmm, better answer,” Nicola said pointing at him with her free hand before taking a sip of her tea, “though you’ve hardly seen all of me yet. Trust me when I say the rest is just as nice if you like what you see so far.”
Getting a bit nervous, Nick smiled as he retreated back to the living room which was still in sight of the kit
chen and the vixen toying with him. Using the laptop like a shield, he nudged it from dormancy. His eyes flicked tentatively to Nicola who smiled almost evilly.
“Oh, Nicky, you are too easy.”
She came over to the couch with her cup in hand blowing into it half heartedly to cool the liquid which had steam rising from its surface. The thin blue stripes flexed with each step on the background white of the shirt making each move like that of a feline on the prowl. Nick felt sweat on his brow. Sitting next to him on the couch, she leaned towards the armrest before tossing her bare legs over his making him have to lift the laptop for fear of it getting kicked. He noticed they were smooth and soft as he replaced the laptop next to her legs. Nick placed his right hand on her left ankle before stroking up towards her knee.
He must have found a ticklish spot as the girl had to jerk it away with a yelp of humor before replacing it a moment later. “Hey!” she warned with a grin, “that tickles. No fair!”
“You started it,” Nick retorted feeling a little less nervous having found her weak spot. “I didn’t know you were ticklish.”
“Well, a girl hardly tells men where she’s most ticklish before getting to know them better. I am not that sort of girl,” she said trying to sound prim and proper.
His eyes questioned the placement of the legs on his own. She was teasing him still, though not truly throwing herself at him. Like a predator, Nicola had thought to toy with him until she was tickled.
She sighed, “Well, I’m not normally that kind of girl. What can I say? You bring out the worst in me, Nicky. I can’t help being sweet on you and you are fun to tease.”
Making the mistake of putting her tea down on the table beside the couch, Nick stroked the leg again making her jump. Checking if she was ticklish by nudging her side above the hip where most people seemed to be twitchy if they were ticklish, Nicola yelped in a protest before laughing in near hysteria. He teased her enough that the girl squirmed and fell off the couch with a thud.
“Ouch!” she protested from the floor and gave him a dirty look.
He laughed extending a hand to help her back up. “Good, I guess I finally found some leverage in this relationship.”
Her eyes lit up as she sat with her legs tucked under her and away from Nick’s easy reach. Nicola twisted to kneel before leaning over onto him with both hands on either side of his face holding onto his hair gently. “So this is a relationship?” she asked looking expectant and taking a breath.
“Well, yeah,” he answered blinking up into those stunning gray eyes.
She actually squeaked happily before moving in to kiss him warmly on the lips. Falling into him more as they kissed, Nick wrapped his arms around the woman finding the embrace more comfortable than he would have believed for their first. Several minutes of heavy petting and kissing passed before Nicola sat back onto her legs to look at him curiously.
“I haven’t felt this way in a long time, if I ever really have,” Nicola admitted to him and herself perhaps. “Being a vampire, affection tends to lead to other things that I am not overly proud of. With you, I don’t feel that way.” At his questioning look, she added, “I don’t mean that I wouldn’t be willing to bite you again.” A giggle and blush led to her going on, “I just mean that I feel something more for you. I’m not sure I’ve ever had these feelings since I became a vampire. I don’t know if it’s your blood sometimes that makes me feel more human or it’s just you.”
She shrugged and he noted the shirt had slipped off her right shoulder revealing a bit more of her upper chest. The skin, like porcelain, seemed perfect and fit her looks. The glimpse made him want more, but he was a man from another era and he wasn’t raised to be like that. There was a time and place for everything in that society. His mind said moving too fast wasn’t proper, but his hormones didn’t care.
With a smile showing his fondness for the woman, Nick said, “Being what I am has made me tend to stand back from people. The good or bad you bring out in me is that I find myself wanting to be with you more and more. Unfortunately, I also have responsibilities.”
Sighing, Nicola tilted her head to the side evaluatingly and pondered, “I’ve always wondered about these self imposed responsibilities you have. You’re like some white knight always on one crusade or another. This girl that you’re trying to save from the werewolves, saving Marek and the rest of us from the monsters that lurk inside us, even trying to keep the werewolves alive instead of killing them, all come from that need to help people. It’s noble, but I still wonder where it comes from. Who says you can’t take a break from saving the world one day? Or do you think this is what you must do for the rest of your life, which could be a very, very long time?”
It was strange that the questions were very similar to what he had been asking himself in relation to Vivian not so long ago. “I think I was put here for a reason. Whether you’d say God or nature makes a voran to stand against evil or whatever, I would still say that the rarity of my kind must mean something. Personally I think maybe I was put on that boat to save Marek and the rest of you after him. Vivian gave me time to grow, but the shelter of her attention doesn’t fit with what I feel inside.”
The woman looked surprised by his words. Nick realized that the wall had come down. The man, who had stood by the side of the road of life watching others, suddenly found someone to bare his soul to and this, was still just the tip of it. Nicola did bring something else out of him that he had fought against for a long time, his whole life really.
“So you really are the white knight, aren’t you? Kind of odd to have a vampire fall for you then, I would’ve thought that more of a black knight scenario. Oh well, the heart wants what it wants,” she realized how much she was admitting to Nick. “Um, maybe we should actually date a second time first before I say things like that?”
He shrugged. “Dating when you’ve known someone as long as we have… Well, most people don’t live long enough to know each other this long, but to have feelings coming up after all this time is unusual too. Maybe that’s the problem, friends who start feeling like more than friends already have a history. Getting to know each other is already sort of out of the way. Dating is just the effort of delving deeper.”
Giggling beside him, Nicola shook her head. “You’re a philosopher too, my knight?”
Smiling wryly, he shrugged and admitted, “Perhaps a little bit. My time studying martial arts often led into the philosophies of those arts and others besides.” He gestured to a book shelf in the corner. It was filled and many involved philosophy in fact.
“So,” Nicola sounded like she was about to change the subject, “about this girl you’re trying to save, what’s the next move? There is only one more night before the full moon.”
He sighed raising his left hand beneath his chin pondering the same question that had been battling in his mind all day. “I think that it’s going to have to happen on the full moon.”
“What will happen?”
“I’ll do my best to follow them to where they plan to start their hunt. My hope is that they’ll lose focus on her while under the influence of the moon. If any of what the stories of werewolves say are true, they can’t resist changing under a full moon. The evidence of which forest they’ve been using is pretty much determined and I am fairly sure that what the rangers have been finding is the remains from a full moon hunt.”
“How many will be there?”
He raised an eyebrow at the ambiguity of the question before realizing that she meant the werewolves. “My best guess is that they have about twenty werewolves hidden between two homes. If there’s a third house then, it could be significantly more.”
The girl looked worried. “Even if we gathered the entire clan…”
He nodded, “It wouldn’t be enough if they all decided to guard her and fought back as one. I’m not asking Marek for help this time. The odds of someone getting killed are significantly higher with vampires introduced into the mix. The werewolves are your
natural enemies and would fight that much harder besides the forest is more their domain. If I can slip in and free the girl, I am more likely to do it alone.”
“Are you sure? I could come along at least.”
The thought had been pricking at the back of his mind in fact. “Maybe”, he started and after a pause continued, “maybe you can come and have the car ready if I need to have a quick getaway. Also you might gather some of your clothes in case the wolves attack her. Maybe towels and a jacket as well, oh and food too.” His mind was thinking about what could happen in this hunt and what the condition of the girl might be. What if she was being kept alive for the hunt, not as a werewolf but as their prey? The thought worried him greatly.
Nicola looked thoughtful as if she was reading his mind. Worry was in her eyes as well.
They spent the night talking in his apartment. Both the planning of what must be done for the full moon and sharing of their thoughts was discussed.
Comfortable in his shirt, he had laundered her clothes from the fight while she had slept, but Nicola didn’t change. The vampire didn’t get cold easily after all and Nicola didn’t tell him that she enjoyed wearing the shirt because she could still smell him on the cotton despite being clean before she took it.
It turned into a date night like many couples shared. Time was spent together eating dinner and even lapsing into watching a movie on the TV. The white knight took his break with the woman who interested him and had hold of his heart. Though he could have gone on a hunt looking for wayward vampires or even werewolves, Nick chose to spend time with his new girlfriend. The word was slow to be admitted, but as soon as he did, the man felt comfortable with it in context with Nicola.
The sun was peeking above the edge of the lake and the buildings between him and the east before they knew it. After a long lingering kiss, Nicola slipped into the bedroom to rest for the next evening.
Vorans and Vampires (Book 1): Voran the Night Guardian Page 14