by D N Simmons
“Let’s hope so, we’re taking a big risk going there and it’s out of the way, so let’s hope it’s not in vain.” Elise hailed two cabs that were going in opposite directions. Both drivers slowed down, hesitating. “Please, we need transportation. We were attack and need to get somewhere safe. We’ll pay you whatever you want,” she pleaded.
One cab driver pulled over and allowed her to climb in beside him in the passenger seat. Four others climbed into the backseat. The other cab driver decided to do the same and he pulled over to pick up the other members of her group.
They gave the drivers directions to the popular club. While inside the cab, Elise continued to call the others. When she reached them, she told them of the meeting location.
“Why don’t we just meet at Desires Unleashed since you’re heading there now?” Adan asked.
“Don’t you think it’s too exposed?” Elise asked, not thinking the club was the safest place for them to be.
“After tonight, do you really think there’s any place in this city were we can hide?”
“You’re right. Fine. We’ll meet you at the club.” Elise ended the call.
Within an hour, they arrived at Desires Unleashed. Xander and his Pack along with Adan and his Pride were already there. The three groups did a check of who was there and who wasn’t. They weren’t sure what it meant if someone was still missing.
“Has anyone been able to contact Xavier yet?” Elise asked.
Justin nodded. “He contacted us fifteen minutes ago, spoke with the manager, told her to let us in. He said they were on their way here.”
Elise nodded. “Good, we need to regroup.”
Ten minutes later, Natasha, Xavier and the remaining members of Darian’s coven entered followed by Richard and the rest of his Pack. Matthew was already there. He hugged each member of his Pack as they entered, thrilled to see they had survived.
Xavier was exhausted from the battle and the retreat as were the other members who were with him. He looked around the room, taking count of all the familiar faces. “I’m glad to see so many of you survived.”
“And those who didn’t?” Elise asked, somewhat apprehensively.
Xavier shook his head. “I went back, I wanted to see if anyone was still there.”
Devin stepped closer to him. “John?”
Xavier looked down. “He wasn’t there. Neither were Sergio, Christopher, Darian, Miranda, Gabriel and Adrian.”
“They took them,” Xander said softly to no one in particular.
“How many were left?” Elise asked once again, still not really wanting to hear the truth. She already knew her Pride had suffered a loss with Rachel, despite her efforts to make sure every one of her Pride got out safely. When it looked as if she wouldn’t survive, Sergio had sacrificed himself for her, taking the blow that Kiren dealt. She had had to leave him behind; it was the toughest decision she’d ever had to make. For hours, she struggled to remain calm, to not break down in tears, not knowing what had happened to him. She had to be brave for her Pride, for their children … for Sergio. Now that she knew he was not among the fallen, she had hope once again.
Xavier continued. “We lost Troy and Annabelle,” he said, turning to see Miko walk away. Her cheeks were stained with trails of dried tears she’d shed over the loss of her lover. She had cried so much, she no longer felt any more pain or sadness. The only emotion she felt now was hatred fueled by the thoughts of revenge in her heart.
“I’m so sorry,” Elise said to her, offering her most sincere condolences. “Miko … I’m sorry.”
“Her death will not go unpunished, even if it kills me, that asshole is mine!” Miko growled, unable to be consoled.
Elise understood her anger and decided not to push any further.
Xavier continued. “Rachel is dead, so are Stephanie, Patricia, Lori. and Philip.” He looked at Xander, Elise and Adan, whom had suffered the biggest loss of life. “I am sorry for your losses.”
Xander nodded. “I am sorry for yours.”
Elise nodded as well, but remained silent.
“Thank you, I too, am sorry to hear about your loss as well,” Adan said.
“Xander, are you all right?” Justin asked, worried about his Alpha.
Xander looked at him. “Yes. I’m all right, just thinking.” He thought about his actions during their battle when he ran to save his wife from Alicia’s attack. His wife was almost onto death from the attack; he had to get her to safety, share his blood with her and hope that it was enough. Now, knowing that his son may still be alive, he knew he could count on him to be strong enough to stay alive long enough for them to save them.
Tatiana felt a sense of relief knowing that her son had survived the initial attack, at least, that’s what she was hoping for. If he wasn’t among the dead, he may still be alive.
“What do we do now? If they have them, we need to save them, right?” Devin asked, wanting to rescue John and the rest of his Pride and friends.
“Hell yeah, we save them! I’ve had about all I can take of this sick fuck!” Barry said, feeling a bit anxious. He wanted to save Gabriel, his partner and best friend.
“Feeling a bit fired up, are you?” Brian asked, still nursing a wound in his stomach.
“I just want to save my friend. What about you? Are you okay?” Barry asked.
Brian nodded. “Yeah, it’s just taking a while for this to heal. The fuckers actually sliced through my intestines. Without my Matron here, it takes longer for me to heal.
“I can help with that,” Tatiana said, approaching the younger shifter.
“You don’t mind?” Brian asked.
Tatiana shook her head. “No. Besides, if we’re going to get our members back, we’re going to need all of the healthy, strong help we can get.” She offered him her wrist, which he took.
“Thank you,” he said before biting her, tearing a small wound. He began drinking her healing blood.
Barry watched the interaction, amazed by how quickly he was healing, how healthy his skin was beginning to look. “Wow, I didn’t know you could do that.”
“You can do that, too, nowadays,” Warren reminded.
“I suppose I can,” Barry said.
“Listen, I don’t mean to be rude here, but just what the fuck are we going to do now?! How are we going to get them back?!” Devin asked, his voice rising with his anger.
“I’m with Devin. We couldn’t track their asses down before they attacked us, there’s no telling where they’re at now,” Justin said. “How are we going to find them? We shouldn’t have fucking ran away. They probably think we’re some cowards now.”
“I don’t give a damn what they think of me, I just want our friends and family back!” Nicole said. She feared for Adrian’s safety as well as the others and it was bothering her immensely not knowing where they were or if they were still alive.
“We had to run away, Justin, we didn’t have a choice,” Ryan said.
“We should have combined our forces like we first planned, we had them!” Justin argued.
“Don’t be stupid, now is not the time,” Ignacio said, silencing the ranting shifter. “They were playing with us, couldn’t you tell?”
“We killed two of their members,” Devin pointed out.
“No, we didn’t. Darian killed one and injured another one good enough for Adan to kill him. We didn’t do much damage at all,” Ignacio said. “And I’m willing to bet if they were taking their attack more seriously, more of us would have died, if not all of us.”
“I saw the opportunity, I took it. That’s all we really had tonight, little slivers of opportunity,” Adan agreed.
“That’s true. Besides, we needed to protect the children. Can you imagine what would have happened to them?” Natasha asked both shifters.
Devin put his head down. He didn’t need to imagine what they could have done; he’d seen their idea of “child’s play”.
“But … we left them,” Justin said, his voice breaking
as tears ran down his cheeks.
“It’s what Darian wanted, for us to get away so that we could regroup. Ignacio’s right, if Marcus wanted to really kill us, he could have done so easily. This wasn’t about them killing us, it was about them toying with us. Perhaps they wanted to take prisoners, and were only planning to kill whomever they didn’t want. I think they underestimated us and I’m counting on them to continue to underestimate us,” Xavier said.
A few of the others nodded, agreeing with his assessment.
“So how are we going to get them back?” Justin asked.
“We need to find out where they are,” Elise said.
“Natasha, can you connect with Darian?” Madeleine asked.
“I’ve tried that. All I’m getting is blackness, like there’s nothing there,” Natasha said, feeling sadden by the fact that she couldn’t reach Darian.
“Could he be dead? When you don’t see anything but blackness, that normally means the person is dead, doesn’t it?” Warren asked.
“Normally, yes; but with Darian it’s different. Our connection is stronger than that. I’d feel if he was dead,” Natasha clarified.
“I would, too. He’s not dead. I believe Marcus is controlling his mind,” Xavier said. “Forcing him into a resting state.”
“He can do that?!” Sebastian asked, shocked.
Xavier nodded. “He’s more powerful than Darian. An ancient vampire can do many things a younger vampire can’t. For instance, he can probably control shifters’ minds … something neither Darian nor I can do.”
“But I thought Darian could read our minds?” Devin asked.
“Not everyone, you … Yes and even Warren, but he can’t read Elise, Sergio or even Ignacio’s. And he can’t control your thoughts or actions, not yet at least, he’s not strong enough,” Xavier explained.
“No wonder vampires are so fucking arrogant!” Ignacio said under his breath. He looked up at Xavier. “No offense to you intended.”
“None taken. I have an idea, it’s the same one I was going to mention before we were attacked,” Xavier began.
“What’s that? I’m open to all ideas,” Ignacio said.
“We go to Darian’s Maker. He’s powerful, ancient … he might help,” Xavier said.
“Whoa, hold up. I don’t know, Xavier. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. That guy scares the shit out of me!” Justin said, remembering the last time he’d seen Kysen.
“He seemed cool at Darian’s party,” Natasha said.
“Yeah, he was ‘cool’, but I got the feeling he was only tolerating us for Darian’s sake,” Justin stated.
“We may not have a choice. The only reason two of their members are dead is because of Darian,” Xavier said. “Now he’s not here with us”
Ryan interjected, unintentionally. “Yeah, I agree with what Ignacio said earlier. We were kind of just cannon fodder. I hate to think of us like that, but that’s how it felt. I just remember running around trying to keep them from ripping my throat out. They were so powerful, so fast! Most of us didn’t stand a chance.”
“I like to think we helped Darian,” Shannon said, not liking the ‘cannon fodder’ comparison.
“You’re fooling yourself,” Ryan retorted. “Those five bastards were kicking our asses! Adan only finished off what Darian started by ripping off Kiren’s head, thank goodness. And I don’t think you did much of anything at all except maybe get thrown around a lot.”
“Like you took out one of them,” Shannon shot back. “I still think we did a good job, that’s why so many of us survived.”
“Bitch! we ran, that’s why we survived!” Carmen said, finally growing annoyed with Shannon.
“Who are you calling a bitch?!” Shannon shouted.
“Enough! Damn it!” Elise shouted, glaring at Carmen, giving her a silent warning. Carmen nodded, remaining silent. “I want to rescue our friends and family and I don’t have time for petty arguments about ‘who kicked whose ass’!” she said that last statement mockingly, purposely chastising Ryan, Shannon and Carmen.
“I was going to say that,” Xander remarked. He turned toward Xavier. “If you think going to Darian’s Maker is our last good resort, then we need to get going. The sun will be up soon.”
Elise nodded. “I’ll arrange for my jet to take us, you do the same, Xander. While we’re doing that, Xavier, you should call Kysen, request permission.”
“I would if I could, I don’t have Kysen’s personal information, all I remember is where he lives,” Xavier revealed.
“Oh shit, now I’m really worried. Kysen will be totally pissed if we enter his territory without permission. He may try to kill us before we even get a chance to ask for his help!” Justin blurted out, nearly panicking.
Xander grabbed hold of his shoulders, forcing him to face him. “Calm down, Justin! Carrying on isn’t helping our situation, be brave.”
Justin looked at his Alpha. “I’m scared, Xander. I’m trying not to be, but God help me, I am. I’m scared for all of us.”
“I know. It’s all right to be afraid, but we must stay proactive. Going into hysterics isn’t going to help us at all.”
Justin nodded. “I’m sorrynt>
Xander caressed the back of Justin’s neck lovingly, hoping to reassure him. He released the younger wolf. “We’ll go anyway, this is the chance we’re going to have to take.”
The others agreed, seeing it as their only choice. Those of them who were naked were able to dress in a few costumes that they found in the dressing room of the employees who stripped at the club. Afterward, they took several cabs and made their way toward the two different airstrips. Xander and Elise made traveling arrangements along the way. Those who went with Elise boarded her plane and those who went with Xander boarded his. Both airplanes took off towards their destination.
Shannon looked around Elise’s jet. “I hope this plane doesn’t plummet to the ground because of overcrowding,” she said.
“Well, to lessen the load, we can always toss your ass out,” Carmen remarked.
“Can we not joke about plummeting planes while we’re ten thousand feet in the air,” Natasha said, looking at the two women.
Adan rose from the floor he’d been sitting on. “Shannon, come with me.” He made his way toward the bathroom.
Shannon sense that he was upset with her and didn’t want to follow him, but she did … he was her King. She rose from her chair and walked into the bathroom behind him. “Yes, Adan?” she asked in her sweetest voice.
Adan turned around quickly, backhanding her at the same time, knocking her to the floor. She cried out, clutching her now bruised cheek. “Get up!” he ordered.
Trembling, she rose to her feet.
“You will keep your attitude in check. I’ve had enough of your smart-ass comments. Your constant badgering of our companions is insulting to our Pride.”
“I don’t like how they make us look weak,” she said in her defense.
“They don’t make us look weak. We need their help if we’re going to survive this. We’re all in this together and no one needs your attitude!” Adan was stern, finally fed up with her behavior.
Shannon lowered her head. “I’m sorry, my King. I’ll behave.”
Adan gently touched the side of her face where he had struck her. She put her hand over his, lovingly.
“We’re going to pull through this, Shannon. Trust when I say everything I’ve done and will continue to do is for our best interest,” Adan said.
“I know.”
“Let’s join the others.” He opened the door and they stepped out walking back into the area of the plane where the others were. Some were napping, others were talking and some were eating. Adan, feeling the hunger pangs, wanted to eat.
“I can hear your stomach growling all the way over here,” Danielle said. “Let me make you a plate.” She rose preparing him a feast from the food that was recently served. She handed him the plate and he ate greedily, devouring every
morsel.
Barry watched them, realizing that Carrie-Anne, another member of Adan’s pride, had made his plate. He was starting to see the differences in how the two Prides functioned. He was seeing that in the lion Pride he was in, the males were revered, the females submissive. He watched Elise and her Pride and saw that she controlled her Pride and the males followed her orders. He thought it was interesting. He also realized that he and Barry were the only males other than Adan who were in his Pride, which made him immediately think about all of the animal behavior/habitat shows he’s seen in the past and was seeing distinct similarities.
“We should get some rest before we land. We’ll be there in less than three hours now,” Elise said.
“Can you rest?” Madeleine asked.
Elise shook her head. “No.” She chuckled. “I wish that I could, but I can’t. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”
“I can’t sleep either,” Madeleine admitted. She held her daughter Mia in her arms; David was laying asleep, his head in her lap.
“Daniel, are you all right?” Elise asked, knowing exactly how he felt. Marcus and his coven kidnapped both of their lovers.
Daniel looked at her. “I’ll be fine once we save Miranda, Sergio and the others.”
Elise nodded. She watched over the others waiting for the moment when their plane reached its destination.
***
The early morning sun was rising and only Raven, who was sitting next to Marcus on the jet, was still awake for the time being. The ancient vampire sat in a chair telepathically piloting the aircraft with ease. He watched Darian rest, and at the same time, he blocked his mind, preventing any connection his coven tried to make with him. He had underestimated the younger vampire and his comrades. Of this, he was certain. Never had he encountered several groups of supernaturals who were so willing to die for each other. So in tune with each other, to the point in which they functioned as one cohesive unit. Their attack was calculated, stealthy. It angered him that the younger Master vampire, who was now lying helpless on the sofa before him managed to kill one of his coven members, and injuring his lover, weakening him enough for Adan to kill him. He had no intentions of allowing any members of his coven to parish. They were to play with their victims as they always had. They were to torture them as they ran screaming in blind fear. Then, once they killed the ones they didn’t want, they would take their bounty for later. Darian was the only supernatural in their midst who had the strength to battle the members of his coven, but Darian was no match for him … This he knew. He sat there, puzzled, trying to figure out how the younger vampire succeeded in doing what he did.