by Loni Lynne
Draylon saw them too. She could hear his fierce hiss under his breath as he eyed them with territorial menace. Letting go of her wrist, he leapt at the leader of the group with graceful force. A sharp set of blades emerged from the cuffs of his sleeves. He tore across the face of their would-be attacker. Black blood spurted from his cheek, leaving him screaming in agony. Another leapt at them and Draylon went for his gut, shoving the blades through to the fanged creature's back.
While Draylon fought through the group, Marilyn ended up shackled in the unrelenting arms of two hissing women, their mouths opened and ready to devour her with ferocious looking fangs.
What the hell?
But before she could react, the two women dissolved into a smoking pile of ash at her feet. Frightened, Marilyn grabbed her suitcase and headed for the doors, letting Draylon handle the rest of the hissing, spitting mass of fanged-gothic humans. She needed to leave, get back to reality.
At the door, two more creatures jumped into her path. She took a step back, but they reached out and grabbed her arms only to explode like small firecrackers on the Fourth of July.
Freaked out she ran, trailing her rolling suitcase. She made it to the arrival area where only a few taxis waited to take passengers to their destination.
"Miss Reddlin?"
A young man stepped forward to greet her. His dark suit contrasted with his blond hair and silver eyes.
"Yes?" She gasped for air, catching her breath as well as her nerves.
"I'm Mr. Vamier's driver. He wished for me to pick you up."
"Oh. Thank you!" Relief flooded through her as she stepped forward to let him help her with her luggage. Their hands touched. His perfect blond features disintegrated like sand through a sieve until only grains remained at her feet.
She screamed and took a step back as the wind whipped his remains helter-skelter. A hand grabbed for her, and she squealed in fright. Draylon. He looked from her to the pile of ash at the edge of the curb near the open black tinted sedan.
Before either one could move, another group of blond haired vamps ran up the sidewalk towards them. This had to be some drug induced freaking nightmare. Doc Johnston would have a helluva lot of explaining to do when she called home.
"Get in!" Draylon yelled, shoving her into the front seat and tossing her luggage into the back. She watched, stunned as he appeared to fly across the hood of the car, his great leather duster jacket opening as he did so. He got in the driver seat and ripped the manual transmission from park to first gear, peeling out into congested traffic, nearly running head first into the front end of a bus as it pulled out into their lane.
Marilyn couldn't look. "Are you nuts?"
"Put your seatbelt on. Things might get a bit touchy."
Avoiding the empty passenger bus by a hair, Marilyn turned around to see not one but three darkened sedans like theirs barreling down on them as they jockeyed around another innocent car. The driver blew his horn at them.
Her heart raced. She fumbled with her seatbelt, fighting to secure herself in the crazy ride. Her cell phone rang. Crap! She hadn't had time to call her mother. Retrieving her phone from her pocket, she fought her panic to alleviate her mother's fears, but right now she wasn't sure how she could alleviate her own.
Draylon grabbed her cell phone and tossed it out the window. She watched the slip of silver technology skim across the pavement, sparking and flipping until it smashed to smithereens under the tires of one of the cars chasing them.
"That was my mother calling! She's going to be pissed."
"Would you rather she be pissed that your phone is gone or pissed because you're dead?"
She couldn't think of anything to say, so she said the only thing that came to mind. "Screw you and the horse you didn't ride in on. I was fine until you came into my life."
"You've never had a life to be fine or otherwise," he muttered before his attention went back to the road and an oncoming car.
Marilyn covered her eyes. Peeking between her fingers, she saw the two sedans pull up along the sides, sandwiching them. Both cars tried to slam into them at the same time. Screaming, she just wanted to wake up.
Seconds later the car on the left swerved to avoid a head on collision with an oncoming semi-truck. Draylon turned the steering wheel hard right, ramming the other car off the road, into a shallow ravine.
There was still one more car.
"Nope…we have more." Draylon had read her thoughts, and she turned around to see he was right.
One revved up, keeping pace with them. Barely missing the on-coming car, the driver launched over them, taking a flying, Hollywood stunt car leap and landing upside down in front of them like an Acme anvil in a Looney Tunes cartoon caper.
Draylon veered at the last minute, flooring the gas to avoid running into the upside down mangled mass of metal. The closest car tailing them hit it head on and spun out of control, doing wild donuts across the highway and into a ravine.
"Why aren't they shooting at us? They're just chasing us."
"They don't want you dead…they just want you."
"Who?"
"Moroii…vampires, Vamier's goons."
"Why?"
"Hell if I know. I'm just following orders. Unlike you."
"Orders from whom?" She glared at him. She'd had enough of this roller coaster dream and wanted off. "Pull over."
To Marilyn's shock, he did. Draylon turned the steering wheel hard left as if trying to do a NASCAR spin in the winner's circle and slammed on the brakes.
The other car rammed into them, whiplashing Marilyn towards the veneer dash. The car's airbags went off. She was amazed to still be alive, uninjured in what should have been a catastrophic accident. Damn. She'd wanted adventure in her life, but this was too extreme.
Draylon ripped off the crumpled driver's door, uninjured and unfazed. He walked up to the driver's door of the other car, which had steam and smoke billowing out from its hood. Marilyn couldn't see much through all the humid mist, but Draylon pulled the driver out by his shirt front and beat the shit out of him.
The screech of ripping metal had her screaming again. Her passenger door ripped from its crumpled hinges. Gloved hands grabbed her and pulled her out, holding her with his arm around her throat.
"I'll take her!" The man next to her ear yelled across the night at Draylon as he lowered his mouth towards her throat. Marilyn could hear the hiss of his breath so close to her ear.
Why wasn't this guy crumbling into a pile of ash like the others had? This wasn't happening. Oh God, just let me wake up, please.
"Aiden would kill you," Draylon's said as if this wasn't an odd occurrence at all. The body he'd been beating against the car dropped to the ground.
"He'll never know."
Duck, Marilyn.
She obeyed the muted echo of Draylon's calm voice in her head. Feinting into the man he fumbled with her body to hold her dead weight and lowered her.
Free of his grip, she ran to Draylon's side. Better to be with the stranger you did know than one you didn't. Burying her face against his leather jacket, she inhaled his scent, the one she couldn't describe. It was him. The fragrance relaxed her over taxed, trauma induced senses. His arm came around her protectively, and he kissed the top of her head as if to comfort a frightened child, just a simple reassuring gesture, nothing more.
"We don't have much time." He gave her a gentle nudge. Going over to the car, he ripped off the crumpled back passenger door to retrieve her luggage. "We need to leave now."
Marilyn stood there in shock at Draylon's strength. It could have been the adrenaline rush making him so strong.
"Come on. We haven't got all night. It's not going to take long before the others recover enough and come looking for us."
She nodded, running towards him, stopping long enough to pat her coat and make sure her purse was still securely around her.
The toe of her boot caught on something, and she tripped over the leering face of her earl
ier abductor—just his head lay there, in front of her like the popped-off head of a Malibu Ken doll her friend Tina had in their youth.
Screaming, she held her mouth to keep from being sick as she tried to scramble away.
Draylon reached out to grab her.
"Oh my God. His head…y…you…he…"
"You can't kill a Vamier any other way. Severing their heads is the only way they die."
Marilyn found his lack of remorse and shock appalling. "You killed him."
"I killed them both. Otherwise you would either be in a shit load of trouble or on your way to a shit load of trouble. I made a promise to keep you safe…I don't fail."
"Who are you?" She backed up, shaking her head. She still didn't know who or what he was, or what these fanged freaks were.
Draylon cursed, raking his fingers through his hair. "I'll explain everything when I get you to safety. Right now…we are a little rushed." He tried to maneuver her wheeled suitcase through the brambles on the side of the road but finally gave up and carried the over forty pounds of black zippered mass over his shoulder. "Are you coming or are you going to stand here with the decapitated bodies? I don't really want to wait for another Vamier to come by and make me decapitate him too."
In a trance she stepped around the bodies and heads to take Draylon's proffered hand, helping her up the slight embankment into the night along the other side of the road.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Some place safe."
"Where is that?" Somehow she couldn't imagine any place that would be safe right now.
Draylon's head tilted down, and the wisp of dark hair covered his right eye. His teeth gleamed pearlescent in the dark as a devilish grin peeked out from his curled lips.
"Have you ever had tea with a witch?"
Rick Delvante had some explaining to do.
Who in the hell was Marilyn Reddlin, and why was she in danger from Aiden Vamier? He knew she had to be related to Diane Reddlin, the CFO of Livedel, but 'the bitch from Hell' was human. The Dacian clan tried not to associate with humans unless the mortals were in need of protection from Vamier's vampires.
But Rick had sent him on this mission. The man had never asked for anything from him ever—until now. Shit wasn't making sense.
The rough hewn chalet nestled against the outcrop of the mountainside like it had for so many generations. Marilyn looked dead on her feet from their short trek. Her shoulders slumped in exhaustion. Her hair had come out of its tightly wound knot at the base of her head and dangled in frizzy locks around her shoulders and face. She was young. There was too much immaturity in her. She hadn't come out of her shell and needed protection from the big bad world around her. It was bad enough she was so naïve. He knew it, could sense it. But to have Aiden's moroii tailing her, trying to abduct her…she needed his protection. He snorted. And she thought this was all a drug induced dream?
Still, he liked her gumption and sass. She could give as well as she got. With some professional training she might even make a good Shield, a personal immortal protector, if she ever wanted a job.
Marilyn continued to glance over her shoulder, looking for danger. She hadn't spoken or complained since they'd hoofed it. Even having been through so much in the past few hours, not only was she still standing, she'd kept up with him. As confused as he knew she must be, she hadn't badgered him with any more questions. He tried to get inside her head if for nothing more than to soothe her, but she'd gathered her defenses and the mental block she'd thrown up had him mystified. No woman had ever been able to block his probing.
"Where are we?" she finally asked.
"Nonni's." He picked up his pace again, opening the wooden gate that fenced in the yard. "We'll be safe here for awhile until I figure out what I'm supposed to do with you."
Marilyn glared at him but held her tongue as the half door opened and an old gnarled face peeked out into the dark.
"Is that you, Draylon?" the old woman called.
"It's me, Nonni. I've brought someone with me."
Nonni looked around as she hustled them into her home. Draylon bent down to kiss the wrinkled cheek of the old woman. Nonni was ancient. No one knew how old. But then, aging was a concept his kind didn't have to dwell on.
The heavy wooden door creaked shut behind them. Nonni replaced both the top and bottom part of the door and secured a wrought iron bar across the entrance, blocking all the elements from the cottage and any danger that might try to come in.
"You did not bring the Vamiers with you, Dray?" She eyed him.
"No, ma'am."
She didn't say anything more but turned to Marilyn and studied her for long moments, beginning to walk away and then turning and examining her again as if she were going to change her appearance if she turned away too long.
Draylon fought not to burst out laughing as Marilyn shied away, took a step forward when she thought it was safe, only to have the old woman turn on her again. It was bad enough he'd told Marilyn that Nonni was a witch.
"Come…eat."
"I'm not hungry…" Marilyn said.
Shit.
Draylon learned long ago it was best not to argue with Nonni. If she told you to do something, you did it. No questions asked, no disagreement.
Nonni turned on Marilyn, sending her backing into him. "I did not ask if you were hungry. I said 'eat.'"
Draylon nuzzled her ear. "It's okay. Do as Nonni says."
Marilyn nodded and they followed the old woman to the grand table in the middle of the chalet and sat.
Nonni still cooked on the hearth of the stone fireplace that took up the whole side of the house. He'd bought her a wood burning stove/oven combination to cook with nearly a century ago. She used it occasionally but preferred cooking over her open fire. The heavy oak table still held its rustic authenticity. Marks and nicks marred the stained wood. Two rough hewn logs split into two separate lengths created matching benches supporting up to eight guests on each side and two massive arm chairs dominated the ends. There was a reason for such a table. One never knew when guests would show up at Nonni's.
The rest of the interior was as massive. Two wolves lay sleeping on the braided rag rug near the other fireplace. Even their huge forms were dwarfed by their surroundings. The furniture, rustic as it was with its rough hewn logs and twine for frame work, were cozy and comfortable with their over-stuffed, goose down cushions.
There was no electricity in the house. Nonni didn't believe in it. Electricity was the work of Satan. It made man lazy and domestic. What was good a thousand years ago was still good today, was her motto.
Draylon was thankful tonight wasn't as busy at Nonni's. He could deal with the two pups.
"Here—eat. You are too skinny. You must eat to prepare for your journey."
"My journey? I'm not going anywhere. I'm supposed to meet with Professor Vamier in Cluj."
Draylon gritted his teeth against what was about to happen. Though he couldn't read Nonni's thoughts, he knew what she thought.
Petite and wrinkled old lady that she was, Nonni had a temper that would make the devil whisper, "Oh shit—she's pissed."
Nonni got in Marilyn's face to spout ancient Dacian. Cringing and flinching, Draylon knew what every word meant. And Nonni wasn't heaping "happiness and joy" on the brunette. Then Nonni got in his face, shaking her crooked finger fractions of an inch away from his nose then punctuating her irritation with that same finger in his chest.
All he could do was nod his head in agreement and back up until the solid wall was behind him. If a four foot-six inch woman could make any man feel smaller—she would be the one to do it.
"Nonni, I'm just the messenger…no, I'm not letting her go with Vamier…Rick warned me…I know, I know."
Nonni spoke heatedly to Marilyn, first talking about her lack of manners and then laying down the law to her. But Marilyn stood her ground. Draylon couldn't read her mind. That
thick blanket continued to block him from her inner thoughts. Then he thought he heard a low throaty growl come from her. It never burst forth from her mouth but it was there.
Nonni stopped, mid curse and lowered her finger. Her eyes widened, at first with shock and then interest and then a sudden calm broke over the old woman. Her eyes closed, chanting something Draylon couldn't understand. Opening her eyes, Nonni relaxed and walked away.
"What the hell?"
"Who's got Nonni in a tiff? I'll kill 'em."
Two naked men stood near the table. Draylon looked at the floor where the two wolves had been sleeping.
"Relax Ren, you don't need to kill anyone today." He looked over to see Marilyn checking out the two men's physiques. A slight pang of protectiveness clouded his vision. "Would you two go and put some clothes on. You're in the presence of a lady."
"So?" Ron, the other shrugged, making a point of crossing his meaty arms over his chest and flexing them.
Draylon took a deep breath. "Just put on some clothes."
"You gonna make me, Dray? You and whose Army?"
About to retaliate the way they always did, Draylon was shoved aside as Marilyn muscled past him. Ron and Ren's voices growled deep within their chests at her approach. Ron's eyes turned a stunning blue as his lips peeled back in a snarl.
Stepping in between the two, Marilyn squared her jaw and growled back at the naked man, setting him to back off.
The clink of something metal hitting the ground caused all of them to stop their ruckus. Draylon rushed to Nonni's side as she grabbed at her chest. Marilyn hurried over, too. She picked up the metal ladle Nonni dropped and looked to see if she could help.
"Is she okay? We need to get her to a hospital."
"No…no hospital," Nonni rasped, tossing her head from side to side. "That is where old people go to die."
Draylon supported the woman's head on his lap as she fought for breath.
"Are you sure, Nonni? You look pale and you're in pain."
"Pain is fear leaving the body…fear is gone now…time for this woman's work to be done." She nodded to Draylon. "Help me. I need to do what needs to be done."