“So what do you two think I should do? I’m sure Nick will have ideas too, but what do you think?”
The siblings looked to each other. Logan was the first to speak as he said, “You could possibly put it off on Nick. I think he has some experience hiding our existence. Tell everyone that you were kidnapped and a private mercenary team saved you. If you say that either he hired a team or ran a team, well then they’d move to him. He can simply say he hired a team and that the kidnappers are dead.
“You can act traumatized and they may still require a psychiatrist, but you would be clear pretty fast.”
Lena frowned at the idea. She hated putting the man, who risked so much to save her, right into the line of fire. Though Logan had a point, that Nick had more of a past involving hiding their kind from the public.
Charlotte tapped her teeth as she thought on the idea. “Certainly being traumatized would get you out of some of the questioning. Police will certainly be wondering at these people who saved you as much as the ones who did the kidnapping.” She groaned, “Ramon certainly put us in a bad place when he took you. No offense, Lena,” the woman added trying not to be too hard on the girl.
Grinning, though she didn’t completely mean it, Lena said, “I would have been a lot happier if he hadn’t kidnapped me too, so I agree with you.”
Laughing with her, Charlotte said, “Though I am glad to know you now, this is kind of a disaster.”
The three whiled away their time watching TV, taking showers and just generally trying to refresh themselves from the night before. When Nick awoke mid afternoon, the voran walked out to expectant eyes. He knew the topic on their minds.
“The wolf that kidnapped Lena, I hear that he is dead from the vampire attack, correct?” he asked after a few of the usual amenities were exchanged. The werewolves confirmed his information and Nick quickly went to work.
He called one of the policemen that owed him a favor and quickly confirmed an empty house on the southwest side. Then Nick called on a few other places, one of which sent a pair of handcuffs in a box to his building. The cuffs he opened and using gloves placed them upon Lena’s wrists with her permission.
“These need to be identifiable as having been on you, Lena,” he stated shortly after most of his plan was in place. “We need to set up your cover story.”
The werewolves listened intently as well. The voran had come up with an idea that they had not even conceived of as an option. “You were kidnapped by Ramon and you know there were at least a couple other men. You were locked in a basement, but what they wanted you for you’re not sure, because they never harmed you. That is pretty much what you experienced until the day of the vampire, correct?”
The girl nodded.
“I have a detective that will be coming to pick you up later today. He’ll take you to the precinct and let your family know that you are safe. You’ll tell them that you escaped from the basement when they made the mistake of not locking the basement door.
“I’ll give him a name to use as the person who found you and called him to get you. That’s all you need to know. You were there, and then you escaped.”
“How are you going to keep the police from looking for the men that kidnapped her?” Charlotte asked.
“She’ll give a description of Ramon as the only man she actually saw without a mask. The others will be believed as at large, but they’ll find Ramon’s body once I call Eric and tell him to move the body.”
“You’ll what!” all three exclaimed in shock.
Letting the three settle a moment, Nick concluded, “Eric will want this problem cleaned up as much as possible and leading away from his pack and the houses. He’ll leave Ramon’s dead body in the abandoned house to be found by the police who will think that his friends killed him, since he was the only one that Lena could identify.
“The case won’t be closed, but that will give them enough to leave it open and keep them from doing much more looking into it.”
The werewolves looked to each other as he noticed the siblings often did. They were satisfied with his solution. Lena looked relieved. The plan involved a minimal amount of lying and was simple enough to remember easily. The simpler the plan, the better she would be able to cover even when other police might get involved.
Nick had a few more calls to be made and a few errands to run later once it was dark, but it would be done.
Chapter 23- Dressed for College
Three hours of running errands and setting up the evidence in the abandoned house, eventually led Nick back to his home. Expectant eyes looked to him as soon as he reentered the apartment.
“It’s done,” the man affirmed, “the evidence has been set up and it should pass most examination, especially if there’s someone intentionally leading the investigation the way we want it. My friend will take care of that.”
“When am I supposed to go?” Lena asked as she stood up to get closer to Nick. She lowered her voice slightly, though the girl meant nothing by it. Werewolf ears could still hear the question, but the fact that she had done it made Charlotte frown slightly.
“We’ll go in a few hours,” Nick stated simply. They would rendezvous with the detective friend just a block down from the house. Nick would be put on the statement as having found Lena when she escaped. His answer for being there was that he had been looking for her and had narrowed his search to the very house. Lena simply escaped and made his job easier.
Charlotte had a look on her face that he couldn’t quite understand, until she asked, “How’d it go with Eric? Did he drop off the body for you?”
Nick nodded. “It’s been placed in a way that will give the police their evidence and point the way we want them to look.”
Starting to pace nervously, Lena shook her hands a couple times trying to shake out her nerves.
Charlotte reached out to grab her hand and smiled. “Calm down. You’ll be fine, Lena.”
Taking a deep breath, Lena nodded. “I’ll be ok. I’m just anxious to see my family and friends again. I know that my life’s never going to be the same and we’re all going to keep in touch, but I am still ready to get on with it. This waiting for timing is aggravating.”
Smiling comfortingly at the girl, Nick said, “I know, but we need things to time out well enough to make our cover story work. There needs to be as few holes in it as possible.”
Nick felt another presence approaching. Lena looked to him and then the door. When Nicola entered, the werewolves both leaped to their feet tensing at the vampire’s entrance.
Dressed to kill in a red satin dress that hung to a mere mid-thigh length with her black leather jacket and calf high boots, Nicola saw the two werewolves and went from a frown to a pout. “Really? Like my scent isn’t already in this apartment from the days I’ve been here?” Ignoring the tense audience for a moment, she moved to Nick quickly and kissed him on the cheek. “Hello, Nicky, is everything arranged?”
One of the calls he had made during the long afternoon and early evening had been to Nicola. It was a return of a text from the woman, who had merely asked how his trip to the woods had gone. For Nick, such a simple thing as a text from a girlfriend seemed strange. He had forgotten he even had text on the phone. The only other times his phone received texts were from the police and FBI contacts he had and that was rare. They didn’t want electronic bread crumbs that could lead back to them if something happened to his phone.
The peck on the cheek was familiar, but definitely not as warm as he had been getting used to of late from the woman. The presence of the others was definitely dampening their potential love life.
“We’re all set. I deliver Lena to our arranged meeting in less than three hours. Did you ask Marek my question?”
Looking at the werewolves, Nicola nodded, but her answer disappointed him, “I asked if they could maybe stay at the Lair, but he was pretty emphatic that they could not. Marek doesn’t trust having werewolves in his home. I’m sorry, Nicholas, but he won’t budge
.”
The two in question both looked at him as if they were hurt by him asking for a place for them elsewhere. Charlotte voiced it, “If we’re impositions for you here, we can leave. We don’t want to inconvenience you, Nick.”
He held up his hand waving off the injured feelings, “I only checked because they have more room with it being a warehouse space. I’ve slept so I won’t need my bed for awhile. That leaves two beds for the two of you, but I’m sure that you also would want a more permanent arrangement if possible.
“Anyway it’s a moot point, since apparently my old friend isn’t comfortable having you there. Oh well, we’ll figure something out and make do until then.
“First things first, we’ll get Lena settled back into her old life. Once she’s gotten her life back, then we can worry over getting yours back or moved on to whatever you want the next stage to be.”
Nicola noted his words muting the mood of them all, she added, “Well, personally, I think that we can at least have some fun tonight. Tell me you have a dress to party in.” The vampire finished as she looked at Charlotte.
The woman looked leery as she said, “I have a couple dresses. What did you have in mind?”
“After Nick and Lena are done, he and I will take you two out for a few drinks and some dancing. I can’t imagine that you two have had much entertainment lately, unless fighting vampires is your type of fun.”
Charlotte still looked a bit wary, but Logan looked positively worried by the vampire’s nonchalance. Their two races were mortal enemies, but she was talking about going for a night out on the town. It was insane.
“Don’t tell me that you two don’t dance?”
“We can dance,” Charlotte said for the two of them. Logan merely nodded.
“Well, then it’s settled. You three get dressed up and, Lena, you get dressed down so to speak to look like you just came from a basement. Sorry, girl, it’s the price you need to pay to reenter college. We’ll call it hazing if it makes you feel better. We’ll take you another night though I promise.”
Nick could feel a bit of tension ease as Charlotte complied and went to the guest room followed by Nicola, who was still talking like she was making a new girl friend. He guessed that maybe she was too. Logan and Lena looked less sure as they sat waiting for their turns to change.
“So when I get back to college,” Lena started to say to Nick, “what do I do now? I have these powers. I’m not a normal girl.”
“You can call or come over anytime, Lena. My door is always open for you.” He thought of Vivian and her version of being a mentor. Nick didn’t want to become her warden like Vivian had tried to be with him. He had rebelled to a point by always being willing to go out into the world, where she had come to hide from it. “Maybe I’ll even introduce you to the voran who found me. You might like Vivian.”
“So she’s older than you and helped you learn how to do… what it is you can do?”
“To a point, yes, Vivian helped me learn about some of my voran skills. She was more like a guardian to her ward, but I can’t say she taught me a lot either. I had to learn most of what I know on my own.” He chuckled, “She actually hated when I started learning the various martial arts. I don’t think she likes fighting and I can’t say she’s ever killed a vampire that I know of or a werewolf either.”
Lena looked a bit contemplative a moment before she asked, “So what exactly do you think is the point of us being… us? I mean, we have these powers and what did Vivian do with them versus what are you doing with them? Now what do I do? I don’t feel some compulsion to go out and kill vampires or werewolves or anything. You don’t necessarily kill them either do you?”
Nick shrugged. “I have killed vampires before, quite a few in fact. There are a lot of rogue ones that, if left unchecked, could kill a lot of people and risk the ones that work to control their hunger. That’s not to mention how many new vampires might have been created just as out of control as the ones we eliminate.”
Lena paled a bit at his frank words. He had forgotten how new to all this she really was. Logan seemed less phased by his words and was the one to ask, “You keep vampires in check. Have you ever killed a werewolf? You fought several and never left them more than incapacitated for a short while. The minor wounds they had were never anything to worry over. That many fights make me think that you’ve never killed one.”
“No, I haven’t,” Nick replied with a shake of his head. “I still feel life is precious and that there is good in almost everyone. The rogues are evil and kill heartlessly, so I have less reason to hold back.”
Sitting on the edge of the couch, Lena was next to ask, “So does that mean that I should be training in kung fu or something? Do I need to go out on patrol like some vigilante?”
“Like I said earlier, I doubt that Vivian has killed any. You have the powers, but it’s your choice on how to use them. I’ve found that as I slept less and less I could hunt in their element. There’s evil out there and I have the power to help people. It’s my choice to guard the night. I’m not forcing my ways on you, Lena. Just do what you feel is right.”
It was Logan that asked a question Nick would have assumed would come from the girl instead, but he asked, “Do you think that this Vivian you spoke of has failed to do what God or nature wanted her to do? Is a voran chosen to exact balance on the supernatural?”
It was Nick’s turn to think a moment. He hadn’t ever let himself really think on the matter in such a way. Did he think Vivian failed to heed a call? “I don’t really know,” he admitted. “It just seems really odd to me that we received these powers and wouldn’t use them to help people. I suppose there’s been vorans in the past that chose other paths than I have or even Vivian has, but for me it always seemed like the right thing to do.”
Lena thought about Nick’s words as she retreated to the bathroom to put on the clothes that she would be found in by the detective. Slightly ripped and dirty, the clothes were similar to those that had been burned by Cairvall. Looking at herself in the mirror, Lena brushed back a strand of her brunette hair from her face. Dark brown eyes peered back at her curiously. Her face didn’t look any different, she thought.
The feel of the others nearby reminded her that she was different, however. Lena was ready to see what was to come. At least, she had people that she could talk to if she couldn’t figure out what to do.
The blue sedan sat in the deserted parking lot behind a closed restaurant. Nick pulled in with the black Escape. He had originally planned to bring Lena alone, but after Nicola’s idea, he wound up with a full vehicle. Lena sat with the werewolves behind him while Nicola took shotgun in the passenger seat beside him.
The unassuming looking man in his brown coat and pants opened the door of the car walking forward to greet him. Nick got out of the driver’s seat while Lena slid from the rear passenger side door. The vorans met at the front on her side and walked over to meet the detective.
The man looked over Nick’s shoulder noting the passengers in the car waiting on him. “Brought an audience?”
Nick smiled slightly as he replied, “Friends of ours who wanted to see her off.” He then gestured to Lena and introduced her, “This is Lena Vega. Lena, this is detective John Sinclair. He will be the one helping you through the process.”
“Process?” the detective chuckled, but the sound was more nervous than filled with humor. “I’ll take you to the station. Nick has talked to you about your story?”
The girl nodded.
“Good. We can go over it more in the car on the way. With Nick’s help, you should be back home and free of troubles soon enough.”
Nick nodded. “I appreciate you helping her out, John.”
The man’s eyes looked a little haunted as he answered, “You know I’ll always help you with these kinds of things as long as I can anyway. The monsters under the bed come and you’re there to take care of them. The circle of friends you’ve made will back you as best we can.” He looked a l
ittle uncomfortable as he added, “We keep you informed on what we hear and see also as you know. It looks like there may be something working from the north side of town. There’s been a lot of disappearances lately from all over, including several soldiers from bars on their leave. No word of them has come back. No bodies found, but there have been more… animal attack stories being reported lately.”
Sighing, Nick understood. Animal attacks were the number one cover story even inside of Chicago. They’d blame it on a pit bull before they’d go to a werewolf or vampire story. “I’ll look into it. I think some of my allies have already run into the results of those gone missing. We seem to have some new vampire coming into town looking to build a name for himself.”
“Damn! That’s what we were afraid of, Nick. If you need any help trying to locate this thing, let me or the others know. We can get eyes and ears on this immediately.”
“I’ll let you know. For now, just take care of my girl here and get her home safely,” Nick said putting his arm around Lena’s shoulders. The girl smiled nervously. The talk of new vampires in the city was a chilling thought to be given.
“Of course,” the detective said with a smile that was warm for her. “She’ll be safe and home as quick as we can get the paperwork signed. I even typed out most of what we discussed, so it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Good, I want this to be done with as soon as possible for her.”
“I’m right here, guys,” Lena said getting a little exasperated with being talked about as if she wasn’t there.
“Sorry,” they both replied simultaneously. John gestured for the girl to follow him to the sedan and she followed him with only a single look back at Nick and the others in the car.
Chapter 24-Talent Scouts
Vorans and Vampires (Book 1): Voran the Night Guardian Page 19