Heart of a Warrior

by Theodora Lane

  “Fool me? You think I’m that gullible?” Her voice rose.

  “Watch it, Nic. She’ll kick your ass.”

  “All I’m saying is to give it a chance. You might even learn something,” Fiona snapped.

  “She’s got you there. You know you hate change.”

  “I don’t hate change. I’m just cautious,” Nic snapped. “And I don’t trust vampires.”

  “You know, we probably scare them as much as they scare us,” Fiona said.

  “I thought that was snakes.”

  “It sure as hell isn’t lizards,” Nic shot back. “I seriously doubt they’re the least bit afraid of us. Do not let your guard down.” Nic hoped he’d impressed on her the danger they were in.

  “I won’t.”

  They reached the restaurant and parked. He and Fiona got out of the car and walked through the parking lot to the restaurant.

  “Table or booth?” the hostess greeted them as they entered.

  “We’re joining some people,” Nic sneered as he spat out the word “people.”

  “Do you know where they are?” The hostess gave him a toothy smile.

  “Yes, in the back.” Nic scanned the restaurant. It wasn’t very full, but it was midweek. “Do you see them, Fiona?”

  Fiona stood on her toes to see over the light crowd of diners. She grabbed his arm and squeezed.

  “Yeah, I see them. That man and the blonde facing us in the last booth on the right,” Fiona whispered to Nic.

  “Got ’em. Let’s go.” Nic started toward the back of the dining room. This was the last place he wanted to be, face-to-face with vampires and without his sword. It made him feel uneasy and vulnerable. However, he had no intentions of letting any weakness, no matter how slight, show.

  The vampires sat next to each other in the booth, their backs to the wall. The tables and booths around them were nearly empty. The male leaned over and said something to the female. She nodded back and bit her lip.

  “They look clean,” Nic told Fiona. “But they could be carrying.” Nic knew he could have had a gun at his back just as easily as the vampire. Only, in a shoot-out, he and Fiona would be the ones dead and the vampires only briefly injured.

  “Relax, Nic,” she said under her breath. Relaxing was the last thing he planned on doing.

  Nic and Fiona reached the table. “Hands out, on the table,” Nic ordered in a low voice. Ivan and Annie brought their hands out and rested them on the table. The only thing they held was each other’s hand.

  “Don’t trust us?” Ivan stared at Nic.

  “No way in hell.” Nic shook his head.

  “Go on, Fiona.”

  Nic motioned for Fiona to slide into the booth and then sat down next to her. He glared at Ivan, taking him in.

  The vampire looked to be in his early forties, had short, wavy brown hair, and was good-looking, with the oddest-colored eyes Nic had ever seen. He looked like a regular guy wearing a brown sweater, a worn, black leather jacket, and blue jeans. A cell phone lay on the table between the two vampires.

  The female next to him, a slim blonde, was younger and beautiful, but her eyes were bloodshot and puffy as if she’d been crying a lot. For some reason, that unsettled him. He flicked his gaze back to the male.

  “Hello. I’m Fiona,” Fiona said. “This is Nic.”

  “Ivan, as you know, and this is Annie.” Ivan nodded toward the blonde, and then draped his arm across the back of the booth behind her in that age-old signal between men that said, “Hands off, she’s mine.”

  Ivan and he stared at each other, taking each other’s measure and waiting for the other to flinch. Nic would be damned if it he'd blink first.

  The waitress came over and interrupted.

  “Can I take your order?” She stood there waiting, her pen and pad ready.

  “Just a coffee, black, and a slice of apple pie,” Ivan said. “Annie, do you want pie too?”

  “Yes. Cherry pie and a coffee, black.” She smiled at the waitress.

  “I’ll take hot tea,” Fiona added.

  “Pie?”

  Fiona glanced at the vampires. “Do you have pecan?”

  “One slice of pecan for the lady. And you?” The waitress turned to Nic.

  “Nothing for me,” he told the woman.

  She frowned. “No pie?”

  “No. I don’t feel like eating.” He growled and then resumed his staring contest with Ivan.

  The waitress checked the order, rolled her eyes, and disappeared.

  “This place is known for their pies,” Ivan said, a glimmer of a smile on his lips.

  “You drink coffee and eat pie?” Fiona asked.

  “No, the caffeine plays hell with our digestion. And I should skip the pie. Watching my weight.” He chuckled. “But it’s best if we try to blend in.” Ivan shrugged. “Besides, they don’t serve what we drink in here.” Straight, white teeth flashed in a wicked grin. No fangs.

  Nic tensed. He wasn’t planning to be this bastard’s Happy Meal.

  “Do you ever eat real food?” Fiona asked.

  Nic nudged her with his elbow. She gave him a look that said, Leave me alone.

  “Well, we can handle some liquids, but our systems just aren’t set up for digesting solid food. If we do eat, most of the time we throw it up.” Ivan grimaced. “But I have to admit, there is something about the smell of a fresh-baked pie.”

  “I know what you mean. Takes you back to childhood.” Fiona nodded.

  “I love the smell of my mom’s chocolate chip cookies.” Annie’s gaze focused somewhere in the distance.

  “So, you don’t have to go to the…” Fiona let her words trail off.

  “No, one of the few good things about being this way. Since we absorb the fluids we intake directly into our bodies, there is nothing left over,” Ivan tried to explain.

  “Oh,” said Annie. “I wondered about that. I’m sort of new to all this.”

  Fiona smiled at her, and Annie smiled back.

  Nic leaned over to Fiona and said, “Don’t smile at them. And stop talking about pies.”

  Fiona rolled her eyes. “Good grief, Nic.”

  “Yeah, Nic,” Ivan said. “What’s wrong with pies? Lighten up.”

  “Fuck you,” Nic growled.

  “Sure, we can step outside.” Ivan’s deep voice purred.

  Nic tensed. “I don’t have to take this crap, Fiona.” He prepared to stand.

  Annie put her hand on Ivan’s arm. “Cut it out, Ivan.”

  The vampire shrugged. The staring contest ended with no clear winner declared.

  Everyone fell silent when the waitress returned with a tray loaded with three white ceramic mugs, a coffee pot, a small metal pot of hot water with a tea bag steeping inside, and three slices of pie. After dropping the tray on the table, she poured the coffee, tossed some creamer on the table, delivered the pies, and then left.

  “You don’t get service like this everywhere.” Ivan watched the back of the waitress and then took the mug in his hands as if he was going to drink. Nic noticed the cup never made it to Ivan’s mouth.

  “I saw you the other night. You were the warm-up act,” Fiona told Annie as she poured her tea. Fiona’s pecan pie did look good, damn it, and his belly rumbled.

  “Yeah.” Annie frowned and blushed. She picked up her fork and played with the pie, picking cherries out of the crust.

  “I, however, didn’t see either of you,” Nic added, pointing at them.

  “Right. I saw you, though,” Ivan answered. “I was busy getting the hell out of there.”

  “Running away?” Nic sneered.

  “Exactly. I could see it was going to be a slaughter, even before you got there. Your woman was taking care of business. When you showed up, there was no point in staying around.”

  “So you left your friends and ran?” Nic pushed. He hated vampires and cowards.

  “They weren’t my friends. In our world, it’s every man for himself. If the tables had been tur
ned, they would have left me.” Ivan shrugged.

  “Some were pretty green. But the others, the toga guys, I could tell they knew what they were doing,” Fiona replied as she took a bite of pie.

  “Yeah, they knew dueling swords but not those short swords. Very few of us are old enough to know how to use a gladius.” Ivan gave a short laugh. “And half of them were recent converts with no fighting experience, much less using a sword. We don’t come across that kind of thing every day, despite what the movies tell you.”

  “Enough small talk,” Nic interrupted. “Let’s talk about the business at hand so we can just say no and get the hell out of here. You said you have someone you want rescued.”

  Annie leaned forward, “My sister…” Ivan cut her off with a touch of his hand on hers.

  “It seems that Annie’s sister is caught in the middle of a power struggle between me and some others of our kind.” Nic noticed he never said “vampire.”

  “And you, having no stomach for fighting, want us to do the rescue.” Nic didn’t try to hide the disgust he felt from showing in his voice.

  Ivan smiled at him wolfishly. “I assure you, I like a good fight as well as the next guy. However, being outnumbered eight to one is something even I can’t stand against.”

  Nic snorted. “I’ll bet.”

  “But there are two of you,” Fiona said, pointing to Annie. “And aren’t you supposed to be really strong?”

  “Annie doesn’t fight.” Ivan’s tone made that final. “So it’s just me. As for being strong…” he paused, “along with a lot of other traits we are supposed to have, most of that is just good P.R. Despite what the movies like to portray, we are not all martial arts experts.”

  “That’s bullshit. I know for a fact you bastards are damn strong,” Nic replied.

  Ivan shrugged. “I admit I lift weights now and then.” He made a fist and flexed his bicep. “If you really want to find out how strong, just let me know. We can settle it like gentlemen, with our fists.”

  “Not your fangs?” Nic quipped.

  “For you, just fists.” Ivan smirked at him.

  Nic growled in his throat. If he ever got the chance, he would fucking skewer this cocky bastard.

  “Gentlemen, please. We have a truce, right?” Fiona looked from Ivan to Nic. He gave a reluctant nod, as did Ivan. “Then I expect you both to honor it.”

  “Now,” she continued, “how do you subdue your victims?”

  Nic didn’t like that, not one damn bit, but he guessed she was just trying to find out what she could, like she’d said, scoping out her adversary. Being able to talk to a vampire without being killed immediately afterward was a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. However, he’d rather be swinging a sword than sitting here swapping insults.

  “Mostly by the element of surprise. Usually, I jump out of the bushes and yell ‘Boo!’” Ivan’s voice was dead serious, but the corners of his eyes crinkled.

  Nic could tell Fiona didn’t know whether to believe him. Annie suppressed a giggle.

  “Cut the crap, Ivan,” he growled.

  “I knocked you out with a sap because I wanted you alive later. There’s no struggle, no chance for you to call for help.” He shrugged. “I don’t know anyone who can hypnotize people with their eyes, or turn into a bat and fly.” He paused. “But flying would be cool,” he admitted with a nod.

  “Look, I’ve seen the damage your kind can do. Don’t come off acting like you’re Mr. Regular Guy,” Nic said.

  “Well, everyone’s got strengths and weaknesses.” Ivan smirked. “What’s yours?”

  “I can take your head off with one swing,” Nic threatened.

  “And your weakness?” Ivan asked, unfazed by the threat.

  Fiona put her hand on Nic’s arm. “It’s got to be his reluctance to trust.”

  Nic looked away and then back at her. “Fiona,” he warned.

  “Nic,” she warned back, giving him a look. He knew they shouldn't have come here. How had she talked him into this?

  Annie sighed in frustration. “God, men are such children! We aren’t on the playground, boys, get over it.”

  “You noticed that, huh?” Fiona nodded.

  Annie turned on Ivan. “Look, despite what you say, I intend on fighting. She’s my sister.” Annie frowned at him. “I have to be there.”

  “Baby, that’s not a good idea. You don’t know how dangerous it is being in the middle of a battle with no way to defend yourself.” Ivan shook his head.

  “He’s right.” Nic backed him up. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re a liability.” He made a slashing motion with his hand.

  Ivan glanced at Nic, not hiding his surprise, and then looked back at Annie. “I can’t fight and keep my eye on you too,” Ivan added.

  “Then I’ll have a weapon. I don’t care, but I’m going to be there.” Annie’s chin jerked up.

  Fiona spoke up. “She can carry a blade. Anyone can use that, and it’ll protect her up close.” Annie looked at Fiona in surprise and gave her a grateful smile. Nic and Ivan glared at Fiona. Great, just what he needed. Another helpless female to rescue.

  “I don’t like it, Annie, but I know I can’t stop you.” Ivan relented, holding his hands up in surrender.

  “Can’t you order her to stay out of it?” Nic asked. "Aren't you her master, or something?"

  Ivan looked at Nic and gave a short laugh. “No. I have about as much chance as you do to order Fiona to stay home.”

  Annie and Fiona grinned.

  “All right. But she’s your problem, Ivan,” Nic said, jerking his head toward Annie.

  “Yeah, she’s my problem.” Ivan nodded and then touched Annie’s hand. Nic shifted in his seat at the tender touch between the two vampires.

  “So, do you know where they’re holding your sister?” Nic asked. All this talk was getting to him. It was just a little too… He searched for a word other than “friendly.” Because vampires could not be his friends.

  “Yeah. They’re using Draco’s lair, one of the males you killed. It’s where Annie…was staying.”

  Nic knew dancing around the truth when he saw it. He leaned forward and tapped the table with his forefinger for emphasis.

  “Let’s cut the crap. I want to know what the hell is really going on, and if I don’t get some straight answers, we’re walking. Who are these actors, and why do they have her sister?” Nic met Ivan’s gaze and held it.

  “Fair enough,” Ivan said. “It’s a little complicated, but I’ll make it simple so you can understand, Nic.” His grin flashed. “There’s been a shift in power among us. Someone high up decided that the males here needed to be permanently replaced by some females. That’s where you came in.” Ivan pointed to him.

  “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t work for vampires.” Nic’s eyes narrowed at the suggestion.

  “Well, whoever you do work for is working with this group.”

  Nic sat back. The anonymous tip. “Son of a bitch! Your people used my people to do their fucking housecleaning?” Nic clenched his fists at being used. “Shit. No way. I don’t believe my people knew who tipped them off.”

  “Ah, a tip, huh? Figures.” Ivan nodded and looked at Annie. “They got someone else to do their dirty work, leaving their hands clean and no way to trace the murders back to them. No wonder Marcos was so sure we couldn’t prove he’d done it.” Ivan leaned back and let out his breath.

  “Marcos?” Nic asked. Another vampire?

  “The bastard who arranged the whole thing. Someone highly placed doing a little dirty work for the others. No trail and no evidence. Just eight dead, slaughtered by a couple of assassins.” Ivan shrugged.

  “Assassins? What are you talking about?” Fiona glared at him.

  “I guess, from Ivan’s point of view, that’s what we are,” Nic answered calmly. “I prefer exterminator. Simply getting rid of nasty parasites.”

  Ivan tensed as the fingers of his hands curled into fists
as they rested on the table.

  “I knew this was a mistake, Annie. These people aren’t going to help your sister. They couldn’t care less about her. All they want to do is feed their hatred of what they don’t understand and what they fear.”

  “I understand exactly what you are, you…” Nic growled back. Fiona’s hand on his shoulder stopped him before he could say exactly what that was.

  “Now, boys. We can pull out the measuring tape later.”

  They glowered at each other across the table. Less than three feet of wood separated them. For a moment, the air between them crackled with hostility and testosterone.

  Ivan leaned back. “You know nothing of me, of who I was, and what I have or have not done. I have been on this earth for four hundred and fifty years, watching your kind destroy it and each other with astonishing viciousness and regularity, for God and greed. My kind has had only one war, much like your Revolutionary War, and our ruling body has been in existence for the last three hundred years. Admit it. Our small drain on society has very little effect,” Ivan said through clenched teeth.

  “Drain?” Nic sneered. “Killing humans is considered a drain?”

  “We take the refuse. The ones no one cares about, the ones that you good folk complain are a drain on your society. The homeless, whores, addicts, and those who should be filling your prisons.” Ivan leaned forward. “Actually, we’re doing you a favor.”

  “You were doing us a favor when you kidnapped Fiona and planned to rape and kill her, you bastard?” Nic lowered his voice to a whisper.

  Ivan’s face softened. “No, she was different. It was an initiation, an old tradition that called for a virgin.”

  Annie frowned. “This is bullshit!” she burst out. Ivan’s eyebrows rose in surprise and Nic startled.

  “You’re both killers!” She gave an exasperated sigh and turned to face Ivan. “Ivan, you know it’s not necessary to kill to feed. As for all that virgin crap, it’s a stupid ‘old boy’ tradition that should have died out a hundred years ago.” He gave a reluctant shrug of agreement.

  “And you.” She pointed to Nic. “Do you even think of us, our kind, as people? Do you think I asked to be this way? That I got up one morning and said, ‘Gee, to hell with med school and my dreams of being a doctor. To hell with having a husband and kids! I want to be a vampire!’” Tears formed in her eyes as she spoke. “Do you really believe I want to live so long that I can’t even remember the names or faces of my loved ones?” She cut her gaze to Ivan, and he lowered his gaze to his hands.