Heart of a Warrior

by Theodora Lane

  “That’s just the tacos I ate at lunch.”

  “Right. Tacos. You sure that’s not a burrito in your pocket?”

  Nic shifted to give his erection more room.

  “Shut up, Cho.”

  He pulled out into the street and followed her. He didn’t even know her name.

  — • —

  As they pulled up to the last girl’s house, Nic got out of the Jag, came up to the SUV, and opened the back door.

  “Here, honey, hold on to the ball like the others did. It won’t hurt you.” He held out his hand, palm open. The blue orb glowed softly.

  The girl nodded and took it from his hand. The young girl’s face changed from tense and wounded to calm. Just like Nic had told her would happen, the now-hypnotized teenager had forgotten everything.

  “Get out and go home,” he told her. “If they catch you, tell your parents you snuck out.” The girl nodded and got out. Waiting until she’d climbed the porch stairs, he glanced over at his partner. “It’s for the best that they don’t remember.”

  “I'm not so sure if I like making them forget.” She bit her lip.

  “Who would believe them, anyway?” He shrugged. “They’d just be asked a lot of questions they didn’t have the answers for, maybe even spend some time locked up.”

  “Yeah. I’d think I was crazy too. They're so young. Kids, really. Maybe forgetting this one night of terror isn't so bad.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Definitely not crazy.”

  “Good. Let’s dump this truck.”

  “Follow me. I know just the place,” she said. He nodded and headed back to his car.

  Leading the way, she drove the big SUV to the state park, taking a drive through to check the area. Pulling off at a hiking path, she parked at the head of the trail. She climbed out and left the keys in the ignition.

  Nic pulled up behind the SUV and watched as she worked. With any luck, someone would steal it. Pulling her T-shirt out of her jeans, she wiped the wheel, the door, and the console for prints. After slamming the door, she wiped the door around the handle.

  The throbbing between his legs increased. Christ, she made his balls ache. But she was too bossy, thinking she was in charge just because she’d killed a few vamps.

  “With a sword. Before you even got there.”

  “Cho, I’m not in the mood.”

  “What mood are you in?”

  “I’m tired. I want to go home.”

  “Taking your sword and going home if she won’t play by your rules?”

  “I remember exactly how to get to that shop in Singapore, Cho.”

  She came to his side of the car and leaned her hip against the door. Bending down, she said, “Well, thanks for the help. See you.” She straightened, gave him a loose salute, and then strode down the dark road toward town.

  “She’s getting away, buddy.”

  Nic sat still, his hand on the door handle.

  “Better move your ass.”

  Nic jerked the door open, got out, and jogged down the road to her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” He stopped in front of her, hands on his hips, doing his best to intimidate her.

  She halted and looked up at him. “Back to town. I’m going to a friend’s house.”

  “A friend?” Did she mean a boyfriend? His guts tightened.

  “That's what I said.” Brushing past him, she took off again at a quick march.

  “Don’t you want a ride home?” Nic searched for a way to keep her around a little longer as he jogged after her.

  “No. The vampire knows where I live. That’s where he picked me up.”

  “But they’re all dead.” He tried to keep the whine out of his voice as he kept up with her.

  She made a noise like a game show buzzer and stopped. “Wrong answer, big guy. The one who picked me up got away. There were only three cars at the cemetery, but I saw four major players. I know how many I killed before you got there, and who was left. He got away, and the girl too.” She looked at him, hands on her hips, her head cocked to the side.

  “What girl?” Nic didn’t remember seeing any female vamps.

  “She was the opening act, I guess. Some young guy was fucking her while the others watched.”

  “While you watched?” His gaze bored into hers.

  “While I was checking out where the hell I was, you idiot,” she shot back.

  “Sorry.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I was just asking. What if I drive you somewhere?”

  “All right, on one condition.” She walked back to the car with him.

  “And that is?” Nic lifted an eyebrow.

  “I want answers. Lots of them.” She opened the door and turned to him. “Deal?”

  Nic paused, thinking. “You may not like the answers I can give you.”

  “Just don’t lie to me.”

  “Deal.” He nodded as he opened his door and shoved his sword to the side.

  “Okay. Go to the park exit, turn right, and go back into town.” She got in, still giving orders.

  He snapped to attention and saluted her crisply. “Yes, ma’am.” Now that he had her in the car, what did he intend on doing with her? And how much could he tell her? She turned to stare out the window and fell silent. Nic stole glances at her as he drove.

  Cho skittered across Nic’s shoulder.

  “Want me to put the window down?”

  “What do I look like, a dog?”

  The lizard’s long tongue flicked out and caught Nic’s jaw.

  “Where are you going? She said go into town.”

  “Going to my place.”

  “She said she wanted to go to her friend’s place.”

  “She may not be safe there. If that vamp knows about her and where she lives, it’s a good bet he knows her friends too.”

  “Oh, good idea. That’ll work.”

  “What will work?”

  “Your feeble plan to keep her around, Nic.”

  “It is not feeble.”

  “But it’s your plan, right?”

  “Shut up, Cho.”

  The black lizard blinked his dark eyes, leaped over the space between the bucket seats, climbed onto her shoulder, and then wrapped his tail around her neck.

  “I like the view from over here.”

  — • —

  “Your lizard’s pretty friendly.” Fiona had calmly accepted the lizard perched on her shoulder.

  “Not usually.” Nic shrugged.

  Fiona centered herself. A lot had happened this evening. She’d held herself together because she had a purpose, a goal, a mission. Now all the urgency was gone, the terror over. It would be so easy to just curl up and try to forget about it. Closing her eyes, she saw the crypt and realized she would never forget about it. Shit. Just what she needed, a new set of demons to slay.

  “Okay. What the hell happened back there?” Fiona turned in her seat, brushed the hair from her face, and leaned against the door of the very expensive car.

  “It’s called a ‘frenzy.’ The local vampires get together to party. Sometimes it’s an initiation. Sometimes it’s for no good reason, just to kill. Each of them brings a virgin.”

  Fiona felt the heat rise in her face and hoped the darkness hid it.

  “Then?” She tapped her fingers on the center console in frustration.

  “They pop the virgins.”

  “Pop?”

  “Like pop their cherries? Bust them?” He rolled his eyes. “Fuck them.”

  Her eyebrows shot up, but she stayed silent.

  “Then they feast on them, drain all their blood until they’re dead.”

  “Shit.” The word escaped like a long hiss. “How did you know where we were?”

  “It’s my job.”

  “That’s one hell of a job. I never saw it advertised in the papers.” She wasn’t going to let it go. “How did you know?”

  “I work for a special interest group. They find out and
send me to break it up.”

  “To kill them, you mean.”

  “Yeah. I kill them. Is that a problem?” He cut his eyes sideways at her.

  “Must be nice being judge, jury, and executioner.” She eyed him and wrapped her arms around her waist.

  “Don’t give me that crap. They’re parasites. Leeches clinging to the throat of humanity.” He tightened his grip on the wheel. “Besides, you seemed to be having a good time making them go ‘poof.’”

  Fiona leaned her head back and sighed. “Yeah, it was…I don’t know. Like my whole life led up to this one night.” She shivered. “It was really freaky, you know.”

  “I know. It was like that the first time for me,” he said.

  “Vampires.” She snorted. “I thought they were just make-believe. Legends. Stories meant to scare children. Bad-date movies.” She waved her hand in the air.

  “Most stories and legends have some basis in fact,” he said. “Bad-date movies, not so much.” His grin flashed.

  She chuckled and then sighed.

  “So, you can decapitate them or stab them in the heart, and they go poof. That much I got. Are there other ways to kill them, like in the movies? Daylight cooks them? Holy water burns them?”

  “They’re nocturnal creatures. They burn in sunlight.” He stared ahead as he clenched the wheel. "Early in my, uh, career, I’d been curious, my hatred for them fresh and deep. I can still see and hear the vampire I’d dragged out of its lair and thrown into the sunrise, just to see what would happen, like a science experiment. It went up like a torch, screaming. Christ, it took forever for it to burn. I never did that again."

  She groaned and looked away. "God."

  He cleared his throat and continued. “Holy water and crosses don’t do anything. They have reflections. They’re powerful but not unbeatable.”

  “Thank God.” Running her fingers through her hair in a swipe, she leaned back again. “How do you know all this stuff?”

  “I study them. And from killing them.”

  They were silent for a while. He cleared his throat. “Now it’s your turn to answer a question or two. What the hell were you doing there?”

  “Duh. I’m a virgin.” She gave him a look that dared him to say something. For a moment, she feared her vulnerability showed in her face, so she turned away.

  “How’d you get picked up?”

  “I’m not sure what happened. I was out with my best friend, Beth, at a bar. We said good night. I drove home. I remember getting out of the car…” Shaking her head, she shrugged. “After that, nothing. I woke up naked, cold, and up to my neck in vampires.”

  “He must have targeted you. He couldn’t be sure just any woman he grabbed would be a virgin, and that’s what he needed. My guess is he knocked you out.”

  “My head still hurts right here.” She leaned her head forward, and her dark hair tumbled around her face. She longed for those strong hands of his to touch her, rub her neck, pull her close and comfort her. No way. She tossed her hair back and smoothed it down.

  “It’ll go away.” His hands stayed on the wheel, and his eyes focused on the road.

  Fiona stared out the window. This didn't look familiar. At all.

  She sat up and looked around as he pulled up to a large house. The lizard left her shoulder and climbed down to the console.

  “What the hell? Where are we?” Her hand rested on the door handle, ready to bolt.

  “My place.”

  “What do you mean ‘your place.’ I wanted to go to my friend’s house.” Fiona glared at him. She jerked open the car door and got out as she looked around.

  “Look, I’ve been kidnapped once tonight, and I fought my way out of it. I’m not interested in doing it again. But I will if I have to.” Her stare nailed him. She dropped into a defensive stance, hands ready, her body angled toward him.

  He got out and collected his sword and his lizard.

  “Relax. I’m not kidnapping you, just trying to keep you safe.” He sighed.

  “In case you didn’t notice, I don’t need you to keep me safe.” She turned away from him and surveyed the woods and the narrow drive that disappeared around a curve. “How far from town are we, anyway?”

  “Not far.” He headed up the steps of the front porch to the old house.

  “I’m walking.” She slammed the door shut and started off.

  “Look,” he called out. “If he knew enough about you to know you’re a virgin and pick you up at your house, he might know enough to find your friend’s place and pick you up there. If you go back, you could be putting your friend in danger.”

  She stopped and turned back. She chewed on her lip as the wheels in her head spun with everything that had happened this night, trying to decide if she should trust him and how far.

  “You’re right, damn it. Going home is not an option. I can’t put Beth in danger. Okay, I’ll stay. But just until we figure out what to do, all right?” Fiona’s gaze held his.

  “Right.” He walked across the wide porch to the front door as he pulled out his keys. “Come on in, I’ll get us something to eat.”

  “Food? Great. I’m starving.”

  — • —

  Annie opened her eyes and met Ivan’s stare. Smiling, she pulled him to her, and they kissed as they stretched out on the bed.

  “Now,” Ivan said, pulling away from Annie. “What are we going to do about the assassins?”

  “Stay as far away from them as we can?”

  “That may not be possible. They know about us now. If they were intent on wiping us all out, then their work is unfinished.” He sat up and stretched. “We need to get them before they think about getting us.”

  “Let’s get out of town.”

  The muscles on his arms flexed as he brought them over his head. He fell back against the pillows and pulled her close. “Not an option. I waited a long time for this territory to open up. I’m not running away.” Ivan closed his eyes. Not unless there was no other way.

  Tonight he’d known it meant certain death if he stayed. Should he feel guilty about running away? He didn’t. In fact, he was glad Draco was dead, and he really didn’t care what had happened to the others after he left. However, those two assassins, they were trouble like he hadn’t seen in a long time.

  “Hitting them first means we have to find them. I know where she lives, but she’d be a fool to go back there, and that girl is no fool.” Ivan trailed his hand up Annie's thigh, over her hip, and rested in the dip of her waist.

  “So, if we can’t find them, we’ll have to make them come to us, but when and where we choose. Right?” She played her fingers in the thick, brown hair curling near his ear.

  “Right. I followed her to a bar tonight. She met a friend there. Perhaps we could use her as bait to bring them to us.”

  “Then what? You didn’t think you could kill them before, or you would have stayed and fought. What makes you think you can kill them now?” Rolling onto her stomach, she put her head on his chest and ran her finger around his dark nipple.

  “If I catch them separated, I might kill one of them. Together, I don’t stand a chance.” He rubbed his eyes. “What does Draco have at his lair that we could use?”

  “There’s lots of stuff. Credit cards and some cash. I’d like his laptop. All he ever did with it was download porn and check his e-mail, and I had to show him how to do that. Lots of furniture, but it’s definitely not your style. Oh, he had this old-fashioned Rolodex with names and phone numbers. He boasted he had important contacts with some big vampire group. I can’t remember its name.” She flicked her tongue over his nipple. He sucked in his breath as it pebbled in reaction.

  “Did he say if it was the Board of Elders?” His eyes narrowed.

  “Yeah, that’s it. Is it important?”

  “Could be. They’re the ruling group of elder vampires. Older than me, if you can believe it.” He snorted. “They control North America. Set territories and settle disputes. They stop us
from killing each other in turf wars and from overrunning our areas with so many vampires that the mortals get suspicious. If that happens, it’s flaming torches and angry mob time, and trust me, no one wants that.”

  “Will they help us? Are they powerful?” She licked from one nipple to the other. Glancing down his body, her eyes lingered on his cock, hard and ready.

  “Very powerful. We could use them to help us with these two killers. However, they don’t work for free.” Ivan sat up and pulled her with him. “We may be able to bring in reinforcements through them. We’ll need them, I think.

  "What will they ask for?” Moving to straddle his lap, she nipped and kissed his shoulder as she worked her way up the muscles of his neck. His cock pressed against her belly. Annie wrapped her legs around his back and pulled closer, trapping his engorged member between their bodies. She wiggled her hips playfully. Ivan moaned.

  “I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it will cost us. However, if I want to stay in this city, those two have to be killed.” Ivan found her ear and nibbled it.

  “You mean, if we want to stay in this city,” she corrected him as she frowned.

  “I need you now,” Ivan whispered. Lifting her hips, he impaled her on his cock. She gave a shudder of pleasure as he slid inside her. Releasing her legs from around his body, she rose up on her knees. Annie closed her eyes as she rode him slow and steady.

  “Damn, you feel so good.”

  She bit his bottom lip and pulled it into her mouth. Letting it go, she cooed, “Who’s your bitch, baby?”

  “You are, Annie.” He kissed her neck and lowered his mouth to her breast as she leaned back in his arms. “You are mine.”

  “No one else, Ivan, promise me.”

  Capturing her nipple in his mouth, he suckled it and she moaned. Bringing her upright, he took her mouth as he wrapped his hands in her long hair. Pulling away from him, she looked into his eyes. “Say it.”

  His amber eyes burned, but he didn’t speak.

  She growled and pushed Ivan down against the pillows. He held back, resisting her. She could wait. After all, she had forever.

  •

  Ivan watched her slide up and down on his shaft, fascinated by its disappearance inside her. At that moment, he couldn’t imagine being inside anyone else. The thought of Annie being with another man— mortal or vampire—was too painful for him to admit to himself, much less to her.