Nick glanced to Logan, who shook his head. “Nope, he can clean up after himself it looks like.”
The girl’s eyes quickly went back to Charlotte wondering where the woman was sleeping if her brother was using the guest room. She didn’t ask, however, and got to work as best she could with so many people hanging around.
As the maid went to work, Nick moved closer to Lena and asked, “Something wrong?”
“Just having trouble getting used to things again,” she said quietly trying to avoid letting Geni overhear. “All people talk about when they see me is the kidnapping and how am I. I know people are bound to wonder, but it’s kind of hard to have to answer over and over.”
He knew what she meant. “Having to give an abridged version,” the man said with a nod. “Give it a week. Make sure you try and go to your classes even when you don’t feel like it. The more people see you the quicker the questions will burn themselves out.”
“That’s another thing. Classes just seem so worthless now. We’re different. Isn’t there something else that I should be learning?”
“Like what?” Nick asked feeling that he did know, but was unwilling to be the one to say it.
“Training maybe? If I could fight, I could help you and the others at night. Plus it’s probably a good idea to just know how to take care of myself.”
Sighing, Nick said, “You need to know something first. I didn’t just turn into what I am in a day. I didn’t fight my first vampire until I was nearly fifty. Today everyone wants to be this or that instantly, but trust me. You have plenty of time to become what you want.
“Finish school. I couldn’t have tracked you down without the learning I picked up along the way. Without knowing computers, I never would have known of the way to track the werewolves to their lair. School taught me to write and to use my mind to figure out the things I do every day out there. It also helps me to pay my bills.
“Now I can show you how to fight to protect yourself better, but it doesn’t take me to train you. I have a friend that runs a class. Maybe you’ll even want to take a friend along,” he said nodding to Geni. Noting Charlotte he added, “Maybe you can even get Charlotte to go with you. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind getting out of here from time to time.
“Hanging out with a couple men all day is bound to bring her to a breaking point,” Nick chuckled. Charlotte smiled as well. Apparently her wolf hearing was very good.
“I don’t understand why you don’t want to train me,” Lena started a bit angrily.
“You’ll be better if you learn from experts in more skills. That’s how I did it. I took martial arts from various masters and now I have that much more to draw from in a fight. I can spar with you from time to time and make sure that you’re learning what you need from them though.”
Lena found her lip moving into a pout as she crossed her arms.
Rolling his eyes, Nick sighed. “Fine. Guys, we’re going to a gym for a little bit. Do you want to come along?”
The werewolves both raised hands to pass.
A few minutes later, Nick returned dressed and carrying a pair of duffels. “Alright, let’s go then.”
When he brought her to his silver Mercedes, the girl’s eyes widened slightly. “This is a lot nicer than your Escape. No offense,” she said running her hand over the black leather interior admiringly.
He chuckled as the engine started up in a low roar. “The Escape holds more people though and is a bit more inconspicuous when trying to rescue certain damsels from distress. The SL550 is more fun though.”
Roaring along the roads for a little more than a mile, Nick pulled into a fenced in lot. Leading the girl down the block, they entered the gym. Lena looked around with a frown.
“What now?” he asked.
“This place looks pretty old, Nick.”
“Well, we’re not here for pilates or a spin class are we?” The room was a classic looking gym. Pads were on the walls as were motivational signs. A pair of boxing rings broke up the space by being kitty corner to each other with bikes, punching bags and everything else work out related filling the rest.
“Hey, Nick, long time no see!” a man who appeared to be in his forties greeted him. “Who’s the pretty girl, a niece maybe?” he chuckled.
“What are we in Vegas? No, she wanted me to train her, but isn’t satisfied to let me pawn her off on people like you, Vince,” he said to the man dressed in a karate style gi.
The man slapped his head. “I wasn’t saying that she was your girlfriend, sheesh! You haven’t stopped in for almost a year and you’re already busting my chops, man. I thought we were friends.”
Clasping forearms with the man, Nick winked and admitted, “Well, isn’t that what friends do to each other?”
Vince shook his head as he looked at his friend. Glancing over his shoulder at Lena, the instructor said, “I’ve known this guy for ten years and he hasn’t aged a day. Don’t fall for him. He’s actually older than he looks, girl.
“And I can’t keep calling her girl. Who is this fine young woman that you’ve brought in here?”
“Lena Vega, this is Vince Taylor. He owns the place and is some levels of black belt.” Nick turned back to Vince and added, “If she shows up to study without me, just put it on my account.”
“Ah, nice a new student, though she’s not a typical looking one for us. Most of these pretty girls head to one of the bigger health and fitness type places these days. Only the more hard core seem to like coming here with all the fancy gyms around.”
Nick looked worried. “Are you having financial troubles, my friend?”
Laughing and waving off his friend’s concern, he said, “No, no, there are plenty who want to go further with all the MMA fever. Thanks to all that televised sport we get a lot of guys that are trying to go pro here.
“No, I was just saying that it’s nice to see a pretty face in here. Welcome, Lena,” the man said with a bow to the girl.
Unsure of the protocol, Lena merely replied, “Thank you. So, Nick, what am I supposed to learn here? Is this a boxing school or karate or what?”
Vince laughed, “We’re the what. We have trainers for everything you said and more. This gym can make you a well rounded fighter if that’s what you want.”
Nick handed the girl one of the duffels. “Go get changed. The locker room’s over there. We’ll meet back here and I’ll try and show you a few things to get started.”
When Lena returned wearing a shirt and shorts borrowed from Charlotte as well arm and knee pads, she looked a bit worried and confused. A padded helm used in boxing training was in her hands. Nick waited for her in shorts and a short sleeve shirt.
As she got in the ring, Lena asked, “Why am I wearing all these pads and you’re not?”
“I’m not worried over what kind of damage I can take. You’re new to this.”
The next hour was filled with Nick showing the girl how to throw a person or how to strike properly. It was the basics as best he could remember. Like he had warned the girl, he was no trainer and his beginner stage was further back than Lena and Vince’s ages put together. By the time she had landed on her back for the third time, the girl was giving him the evil eye.
Nick laughed as he picked her up from the mat. “I warned you that I am not a teacher of this sort of thing. We can stop and I can have Vince or one of his guys sub in for me, if you want.”
Shaking her head, Lena’s glare eased and she said, “It’s fine for today, but can I ask you some questions that they can’t answer? Something about what we are?”
Glancing around to make sure no one was in eavesdropping distance, Nick nodded.
“When did you start not being able to sleep?”
He took a deep breath as he thought about the question. “I think I was in my fifties when I began having what I thought was insomnia. I could sleep every other day, but in less than a decade I was only sleeping once every five days like I do now. I get a lot done without sleeping, but there
are times where I miss it.”
“You miss sleeping?”
Nodding, he replied, “I used to dream vividly almost every night. Every once in awhile I’ve had day visions, but I don’t always dream as far as I can tell. I might have dreams once a month since I sleep less.
“Why do you ask, by the way?”
“I had problems falling asleep after returning home after the police station.”
Nick chuckled, “Well, that hardly comes from being a voran. With all the stress of the last two weeks and it was probably day time besides, you could expect to have trouble falling asleep.
“That’s one good thing about my sleep pattern. When I lay my head down, I am out like a light. My body tries to shut down if I stay up much longer than five days.”
“When can you teach me about those glowing spears?”
Grimacing, Nick tried to steer her away from the idea by saying, “One thing at a time. You need to learn how to fight before we let you take the kid’s gloves off. They don’t train beginners with metal swords right away either.”
“Aw, come on, Nick!” the girl pleaded. At the second shake of his head, Lena gave up for the time being. She could work on him again later. He was set against it for now and, as the only voran she knew, nothing would be gained by begging.
They wrapped up their session and said goodbye to Vince on their way out of the gym.
Nick was pretty quiet on the short trip home. Lena noted it, but said nothing and simply watched as the buildings passed by through her window. The voran was already contemplating his real task of the day. It was time to go see Eric in person. The discussion was safer over the phone, but he had to begin forming a bridge of trust between them or both the clan and the pack would be destroyed.
Driving up to the big house in Beverly, Nick looked at the building warily. He parked the silver car out front and, after getting out, made the dangerous walk to the wolf’s den. He could feel them and most were moving towards the front windows.
The glass had been replaced in the front already. He wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen plywood over it, but it was winter and supplied most of the light to the main room. Nick caught himself thinking on the trivial and tried to sense Eric’s presence. He knew the pack leader’s essence from their fight in the woods, if not from the brief exchange the night of the rescue attempt here.
The door opened as the man started up the first step. Chan filled the door with anger etching his face. “What are you doing here?”
“I am here to see Eric. There’s important information I have to tell him. Don’t worry. I’m not here to start a fight.”
“First time for everything,” the big man managed to say without any release of the anger. Turning to look back inside, Ray spotted his leader and stepped out onto the porch instead of retreating back inside.
Eric walked out onto the porch in a short sleeve shirt and jeans. The cold air didn’t seem to faze him as he stood on the stoop.
“What now?” he asked eyeing Nick who still stood on the second stair. “You need another body? I don’t have any to spare at the moment.”
With a slight smile on his face, Nick shook his head. “No, the Lena issue is pretty well settled. There won’t be any police on your doorstep from that.
“Unfortunately, we both might see more vampires. There’s a clan leader pushing his way into the city in an alarming way. He’s building an army and both your pack and the clan I work with look to be obstructions he plans on clearing from his path.”
“What are you talking about?” Eric asked looking nearly as annoyed as the big Asian behind him.
“You were attacked by two clans last week. The first was from a vampire named Cyrus. He’s been throwing scouts into my friend’s territory as well. The six he sent after you were just his way of saying hello. After they were killed, he probably replaced them with twice that number.”
“How do you know he sent six to attack us? How do you know so much about this Cyrus, if he’s not one of your pet vampires?”
“I’ve talked with Charlotte and Logan about the first attack.”
“You what!” Ray snarled and would have charged Nick if Eric hadn’t put out his hand to restrain him. “Those traitors!”
Eric looked at Nick with cold blue eyes and added, “I am inclined to agree with my fiery tempered friend. Where are those two?”
“They are in my protection and so is Lena. You know they never truly fit in with your pack. They’re trying to move on and there are no hard feelings from them towards you. It was just their time to move on before things came to a head.
“As to your second question, we ran into some of Cyrus’s scouts last night and I was able to tail them back to their headquarters. I interrogated one of their guards and got what I could out of him before he died.”
“And what is it you think I’m supposed to do?” the pack leader asked appearing ready to stonewall his answer without hearing it.
“I propose a truce and more importantly an alliance. Neither of us have the numbers to defeat Cyrus, but together we might have a chance.”
Crossing his arms defiantly, Eric asked, “And what is to stop me from just recruiting more werewolves to build my own army? There’s nothing to say that your vampires wouldn’t join this Cyrus and attempt to kill my wolves instead. How do I know it’s not a trap?”
“Cyrus already has the police concerned with the rash of disappearances he’s caused. If you add to it after the other incidents that have already brought the police to your door, I would hate to see something even more deadly dropped on your doorstep.”
“Are you threatening me now?” the man was still in human form, but he managed to bristle as a threat none the less.
“Just stating the facts as I see them. You try and build an army, there is a strong chance your existence and that of the vampires in this city could come to light. If that happens, many, many people will die including your pack as well I would bet. It’s going to be risky enough using our current numbers to attack him without drawing police attention, but I think if we strike at the right time we can do it.”
Looking calmer, Eric said, “You still haven’t said why I should trust your vampires not to turn on me.”
“The same reason that we don’t expect your pack to turn on us. We need each other.
“If we try this individually, Cyrus will destroy first one group and then the other. The only other choice is to run before he can send too many after you. He wants the entire city apparently from his actions, so we can either fight or run.”
Eric looked like he wanted someone else to answer for him. A quick glance to Ray gave him little. The big man wanted revenge on Nick for each defeat he had suffered from the voran, so there was no other rationale except to do what he could to defy Nick.
With a sigh, the wolf leader said, “Let me think on it. I will call you later today.”
“Think on it? Just tell him no,” Ray growled. “Take your alliance and stick it. We can survive without this guy or his vampires. They’re just filthy undead anyway.”
Eric gave the man a withering look. Chan quieted immediately and even gave up a step to his leader. “Though Ray has a point, I will consider it and get back to you. If we do ally, I can’t guarantee that it will last after we beat this Cyrus.”
With a nonchalant shrug, Nick replied, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right, but we won’t be the ones to break it. We could have killed members of your pack, but we chose to leave them alive. I tend to think that we could get along if it was what our groups wanted.
“Well, let me know soon, Eric. If we’re going to stop him before his clan gets too strong, we need to attack this week most likely.”
Nick turned his back on the werewolves calmly, even as his instinct told him to keep his eyes on the wolves. It was possible that Chan would attack him from behind, but Eric seemed more honorable.
The worry was unfounded as Nick made it back to his car and drove off with no incident.
It was now a matter of waiting on Eric. He doubted the werewolves would run and the lead wolf seemed to be a reasonable man as werewolves went anyway.
The thrum of the engine tuned out much of the worry as he let the sound encompass his body and carry him on his way back to the apartment.
Chapter 27- Culling
Night was fully upon the city when Nick and the vampires took to the rooftops. They knew the direction that the enemy clan had to come from as they left their fortress, so in teams of two, they advanced from the south towards the building center. It was their hope that they could begin catching some of Cyrus’s scouts away from the hive and thin out their numbers that way.
How long they could get away with the idea, no one could possibly know.
The clan moved steadily north with Nick moving just ahead of them. The voran was alone, but he smelled human to their nostrils so if they thought to try and take him, Nick would have the advantage of surprise. His sixth sense was extended as far out as he could make it go. He covered a little more than an eighth of a mile length from center with a little effort.
There was still about a mile between them and the fortress when Nick picked up a new vampire essence. He spoke into a two-way radio to let the others know. It didn’t matter if this was of Cyrus’s or not, they still needed to remove rogues though it was doubtful there were any in the area not in the clan anyway.
Nick felt Sophia and Derek move ahead of the others to close on the wayward vampire. In a moment, he felt the stranger’s essence wink out.
“Done,” came Sophia’s matter of fact update.
A few hundred yards further along Nick felt a pair moving together. He wondered if it was the recruiters from the night before. “Two coming towards Marcus and Cheryl,” he reported into the two-way.
The two mentioned slowed to allow Mike and Nicola to move closer to assist. The attack was quick, but he felt as one tried to use the other as a shield to run back for help. Cheryl and Nicola took down the first as the quicker males ran down the other in less than a block.
Both vampires winked out and the four reported all clear into their radios. So far so good, he thought.
Vorans and Vampires (Book 1): Voran the Night Guardian Page 22