There were a few exceptions, mostly scattered among the militant terrorists that protested against Vampires. They were noted for their hatred of Weres, as well as Vampires. They believed, but few listened to their claims when it came to Weres.
Vampires, on the other hand, had not survived for millennia without knowing who they were sharing their world with, and there were more than just Weres out there. However, those creatures did not interfere with what had become a Vampire dominated society, and so, the Vampires did not share the knowledge of their existence with the oblivious humans.
Alex satisfied himself that Ryan would not be causing any trouble, and he suspected that the Were would probably leave soon. Weres never seemed to like feeling weak and inferior, and they certainly weren’t weak in comparison to the soft humans, but to an old Vampire, they were children, and they knew it. It was most likely the main reason Weres and Vampires rarely had dealings.
He was content that the situation was dealt with, and he was glad to keep Sara. She was very efficient in knowing what to do without being told. She rarely spoke and was completely unobtrusive. He smiled and thought, while she was no comparison to Aurora, she was a pretty little thing for a human. He had seen her looking at Aurora, and him too, and he thought if it ever came to it, she would be loyal or at least pliable.
six
Sara carried her bundle to the laundry. She dropped what was left of Alex’s shirt and Aurora’s lace panties into the waste basket. She left the rest for the launderers to deal with. She gathered up the shoes and took the back stairs to the master suite.
As she entered, she heard the Lake’s speaking softly in the adjoining bathroom. The double doors to the bathroom were wide open, and she had to walk past them to the dressing rooms where the shoes went. She tried not to look as she hurried past. She knew the Alex and Aurora could care less if she saw them, but she felt a little self-conscious about it, all the more so because of the fantasies she had about them.
She caught a glimpse of skin as she passed. She thought she saw them standing next to the tub holding each other. She heard Alex speaking. It sounded as if he was saying, “I’m sure it’s nothing. You’re tired, that’s all.”
She put away his shoes and wondered what he meant. Aurora’s dressing room was on the other side of the balcony, and she glanced outside as she was headed there. She stopped suddenly, her eyes wide. Aurora’s shoes dangled from the straps in her hand.
∞∞∞
Alex carried Aurora right to the tub and was going to put her in the water, which he was happy to see was still steaming.
“Just a minute,” Aurora said. “Put me down, please.”
He did as she asked. “What is it?” His brow pulled into his worried look. Aurora always said it was a good thing he didn’t age because that worried look would have given him some hellacious wrinkles.
She didn’t say it then. Instead, she said, “I don’t know what it is, but I feel a little strange.”
“Strange in what way?” He put his arm around her.
“I can’t explain it exactly. I feel a little flutter in my stomach, and I just feel--I don’t know--a little weak, I guess.” She frowned at her reflection in the mirror as if she might see what was troubling her there.
“Did you drink the wine at the party?” he asked in a teasing manner.
But, she didn’t laugh. “Of course not,” she replied, still frowning.
“Why don’t you just relax in your bath for a little while and I will wash your hair.” He met her eyes in the mirror while kissing her bare shoulder.
She hesitated, but finally smiled as if to say she felt silly. “That sounds like an excellent plan.”
The bath was a colossal, sunken, tiled affair with steps down into it. As she stepped down into the water, she stopped at mid calf and gave Alex a look of shock.
“Oh my gosh! The water is too hot! I don’t understand. What is this?!” She quickly hopped back out of the tub.
Alex was confused too. He knew as well as she did that, as a Vampire, the temperature of the water should not have been too much for her. She loved her baths to be steaming hot. It should not have hurt her.
“What is happening to me?” she sobbed.
He pulled her into his arms. “I’m sure it’s nothing. You’re just tired, that’s all.” But Alex knew that wasn’t it.
He was holding her tightly to his chest, and she couldn’t see the worried look on his face.
∞∞∞
Alex put a robe on and wrapped his wife in the fluffy terry robe she usually only wore after a bath. He guided her into the bedroom with his hands reassuringly on her shoulders. They both stopped in their tracks when they saw Sara standing at the French doors with Aurora’s shoes still hanging at her side.
“Sara?” Alex said.
The young woman didn’t respond or appear to hear him at all.
“Sara!” He called sharply.
She startled and turned her wide eyes to him. “Sir?” Her voice was shaking.
Just then a brilliant flash of light backlit her from outside the window.
“What?” Alex and Aurora both walked to the glass.
Sara turned back as well, and they all stared in wonder and a little fear, mostly on Sara’s part, at the spectacle taking place in the sky. White flashes of light were everywhere they looked. It was like lightning flashing behind the clouds except there were no clouds or lightning and no thunder broke the quiet. There was only sky and light.
Sara forgot herself and grasped Alex’s arm. “What is it?” She sounded on the verge of crying.
Alex barely noticed that she was touching him. His mouth was open, and he didn’t even try to answer her. Aurora was holding his other arm lightly. She too could only stare.
Alex tried to think of something soothing to say. He wanted to be strong for the woman, but like Aurora, he had begun to feel a little weak. He was already getting a little dizzy, when the ground shook. The floor shifted under his feet, and he stumbled, both women stumbling with him.
They caught themselves before falling, and Alex just had time to think that they were nowhere near an area prone to earthquakes, when another trembler hit them. He could hear glass shattering all over the house, and the door in front of them burst from its warping frame, shattering the panes and showering them with slivers of glass.
An ear-splitting cracking sound boomed in the bedroom, and the floor tilted beneath their feet. They fell flat on their asses and started sliding on the sloping floor toward the interior wall. Alex grabbed Sara and Aurora and started back-pedaling, getting a little traction on the hardwoods with his bare feet. But as he scooted closer to the opening where the balcony door had been, his feet started sliding on the bits of broken glass that acted like razor sharp gravel causing him to lose traction and worse yet, making his feet bleed so that the floor was now slick with his blood, as well.
They all instinctively looked toward the opening to the outside as if it was their only escape. Just then the entire sky filled with a brilliant light, not just a flash, but a light that illuminated the world as far as they could see. It surrounded them until they could not see anything else. They were blinded in pure light and then they lost consciousness. They slid down the broken floor into the collapsing house.
seven
Destiny woke to the pain of her injuries. It was daylight at the mouth of the cave. She gingerly probed her ribs and found that although they were obviously healing they still hurt like hell. Her wrist felt a little better though and she flexed it just enough to check the range of motion.
She shifted a little on the rock to try and relieve some of the stiffness that had settled on her as she slept.
She’d been dreaming of her parents, of the night the entire world changed. That was the night that Destiny had been conceived and the reason that she thought that she was probably the first of the Vamphyr to be born.
It made her a little uncomfortable to know every detail of her parent’s intimac
y, but she had fourteen hundred years of her mother’s memories, so there was no getting around it. Her Dad was more than handsome but, really?! Ick! She might have laughed if she didn’t know it would hurt so much.
She had been dreaming of Sara and Ryan too. I need to get out of here and find them, she told herself. I hope they’re okay. Sara should be safe, but Ryan might be looking for me right this minute.
Sara was like a second mother to Destiny, and for years, she was her only mother. And, then there was Ryan. Her relationship with Ryan was… well...complicated. Yeah, that’s it, complicated. She felt a twinge of guilt when she thought of the last time she had spoken to Ryan. They argued, and she knew that she was being unreasonable, but she just hadn’t been able to back down or to apologize. She hoped that she would get that chance soon. Sara and Ryan were her family and for better or worse, she loved them.
Sara was around fifty now and even though she was starting to look a little older, circumstances had kept her young looking. Ryan, on the other hand, was a year older than Sara but, he was a Were and he did not age as quickly as a human would. He still looked twenty-nine or so even though he was more than fifty. She did the math in her head. Yeah, fifty-one.
Ryan never acted fifty a day in his life, she thought. He’s just a gigantic sexy puppy. Ryan’s Were species was the wolf, and whenever Destiny wanted to push his buttons, she called him a puppy. Ryan had always been the center of Destiny’s world, growing up, and now she ached to see him give her his big, flashy grin. She figured she had another 36 or so hours before she could try to get up and around.
Her eyelids were heavy again, and she let them drift closed. She let darkness enfold her and take her back into a deep healing sleep.
eight
Aurora woke to choking gray smoke, burning her eyes and gagging her. She held her breath to avoid taking in any more of the noxious fumes. She didn’t actually need to breathe anyway. She only needed the air to talk, so she stayed silent and tried to see through the smoke.
As near as she could tell, the floor of her bedroom had dropped into a wide hallway on the main floor. It was still slanted at a crazy angle and everywhere she looked there was only wreckage. She did not think that much of the house was still standing.
She moved a chunk of her headboard from her path and tried to see a way out of the rubble. She spotted legs sticking out from under the mattress that went with the headboard. She lifted it out of the way and found Sara, still unconscious, but stirring and moaning.
She pulled Sara up by her arms and let her upper body drape over her own shoulder. She lifted her, vaguely aware that the effort it was taking was greater than it should have been. Sara was a small woman, and Aurora was still much stronger than a human, but she felt a weakness that she was unaccustomed to and could not explain.
As she tried to wade through the wreckage to find a way out, Alex came from somewhere behind her and grabbed her arm. He was not speaking either, but Sara was starting to cough. There was so much smoke. Alex gently pulled Sara from Aurora’s shoulder and into his arms.
Aurora thought that she could hear flames crackling behind the smoke toward the rear of the house. Alex indicated the opposite direction, using his chin to point. Aurora tried to clear as much debris from his path as she could so that he would not have to let go of Sara. She finally found an opening to the outside that used to be a dining room window. She stumbled outside still enveloped in thick smoke and kept going to try and get clear of the cloud. She stumbled and fell when she caught her bare toe on the edge of the driveway. Her legs kept going a few steps, trying to regain her balance before she finally flew forward face first and landed on her belly at least fifteen feet beyond the place where she stubbed her toe.
She lifted her face from the pavement, spitting loose bits of dusty cement out of her mouth and cursing. She might be an elegant lady when she wanted to be, but she knew the choicest curse words in at least sixteen languages.
She rubbed at the smoky tears running from her eyes. She could barely see. It was no wonder that she had tripped. She blinked her vision clear and sat up on the ground. It wasn’t until then that she realized it was daytime, and she was sitting in sunlight, smoke filtered sunlight but still sunlight. She was not feeling any effects, no pain, well, no pain from the sunlight anyway. She panicked expecting to burst into flames at any moment. She lunged to her feet and ran back toward the house, bowling into Alex and Sara in the thick smoke. She went flying again, and Alex was frantically back-peddling in an effort not to drop Sara. He tripped over Aurora, who was face down on the ground again, only this time she was on the lawn. At least the grass and dirt is better than the cement, was the thought that flashed through her head. Her mind was racing as she desperately tried to think of what to do. She thought that maybe the smoke was protecting them for the moment, but with the house in flames and more than half collapsed anyway, she could not think of a place to run.
Alex had to let go of Sara as he rolled off of Aurora’s legs and tried to stand. Aurora was spitting sod from her mouth and still urgently trying to think where to go. Maybe the garage, she thought, but she couldn’t tell if it was still standing in the murk. She no more than finished that thought when the breeze shifted and blew them clear of the smoke.
Alex recognized the danger immediately, and in a horrified attempt to save Aurora, he dived back on top of her and tried to shield her from the light, with his own body.
Aurora felt the full weight of Alex come crashing onto her back, and her face thumped into the turf a second time. Damn it! She turned her face to the side and spit out more dirt. She was so confused! She tried to think back to the escape from the house, and she wondered if somehow she truly was dead. She didn’t feel dead, but since she had no heartbeat, how was she actually going to be able to tell. Her thoughts were chaotic and irrational. Then suddenly she was fully aware of her own hand close to her face. She had instinctively put her hands out to try and cushion her fall. Now her hand was palm down on the grass in front of her face, not protected by Alex who was crushing her still. She could see a golden beam touching the back of her hand and felt the warmth of the sunlight on her skin. It had already been several seconds, and she was not burning. From the feel of him on top of her, neither was Alex.
Alex realized that the sun was shining on his face, and he tilted his head up and squinted to look at it. He thought he remembered something from what seemed like a million years ago about not staring into the sun. He turned away and saw a big spot in his vision. He closed his eyes and looked at the spot on the back of his eyelids.
When he opened them again and looked at Aurora, he felt like he was in some kind of shock, and he knew that he was grinning like an idiot. He could see that her face was dirty, and she was trying to turn her head to look at him, but her neck wouldn’t move that far.
“Geptth offfth,” she sputtered.
He realized he was smashing her, and he rolled to the side. She pushed herself up to her hands and knees, not raising her head, but looking at the ground, her hair hanging down covering the sides of her face. He saw her start to tremble violently, and he thought she was sobbing. Then he heard her laughing in a way that he had not thought her capable of in a long time. His ear to ear grin returned and was even wider if that was possible.
Sara stirred on the ground next to him. Her eyes opened to look into his smiling face. She heard somebody laughing and a wan smile came to her lips.
“Are we dead?” she asked Alex, still smiling.
“Well,” he said. “That’s an excellent question. Let me think about it. You are definitely not dead, and yesterday I would have told you that, technically, I am dead. Today I am not so sure.”
Sara blinked at him and looked confused. “Huh?”
He just kissed her forehead and joined Aurora in her laughter.
Nine
Aurora had a damp cloth in her hand and was wiping blood off Sara’s face when Alex came back into the lean-to shed in the walnut grove.<
br />
“Where did you find water?” he asked her.
“In a bird bath.” She shrugged. “Did you find a phone or anyone else?”
“I went to see if I could get into any of the cars that had emergency phones in them. The garage was mostly collapsed, but I did get a phone out of the Rover, which was only half crushed.” He looked at her with his mouth in a grim line. “Aurora, there are no phone signals, and I don’t mean that they are too busy or that there aren’t enough bars. There are literally no signals”
“What does that mean, Alex?” She started to catch his worry.
“I’m not quite sure, but I think what happened here may be bigger than I first thought. I’m not so sure that this was an isolated earthquake.”
Neither of them had mentioned the light in the sky yet, and she was a little afraid to go there. Alex had proposed the earthquake theory when they had finally found some shelter to bring Sara to. He told her to stay with Sara while he tried to find anyone else still alive and maybe a phone to call for help for Sara who was unconscious again. There should have been at least three more staff members around somewhere with maybe one or two out for the night.
“Did you find anyone else?”
“Old Nate was in the collapsed garage.”
“And?” She pressed.
Alex just looked at her sadly and shook his head.
She stared down at the rag in her hands without actually seeing it. Suddenly she snapped her attention back to Alex. “What about a land line?” she asked hopefully.
He shook his head again. “I thought of that too. The only true hard line we had was the alarm, and I was able to check that line at the garage. It’s totally dead.”
He took a deep breath and caught Aurora’s gaze. “Look, I don’t want to frighten you but I also found a radio, like a CB, but there was only some kind of crazy screeching interference on every channel, not even static. I think I may need to walk to town to get help for Sara.
Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) Page 4