Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny)

by Blakely, Noelle

  He shelved the idea of finding a car to drive back. Even if, he found one undamaged enough to drive, the road was not in passable condition. He would have to walk back. He started out in a jog. After seeing the destruction of the town, he was starting to feel as if he had been away from Aurora and Sara too long.

  As he passed by the driveway to the farm, he remembered that he was going to send someone for the horses. He turned into the drive and hatched a plan.

  Eleven

  Aurora and Sara were leaning against one another, dozing with their heads touching and still holding hands.

  Aurora heard the horses snorting and clomping across the hard packed dirt path that ran through the walnut grove. She woke Sara with a hand over her mouth as a warning to stay silent. Sara’s eyes were wide, but she nodded to Aurora, who released her.

  Aurora pointed outside and then touched her ear in a gesture to Sara that she was hearing something. Sara nodded again, and Aurora slipped out of the open faced shed and into the trees. She circled around and approached the horses from behind.

  As she drew closer, there was no mistaking the man that sat on the lead animal. She didn’t need to see his face to know him. The wind shifted without warning, and her scent carried to the animals that reacted as if they smelled a predator. Not fair, why didn’t they ever treat Alex that way? He scented her too and slid from the horses back to wait for her. She walked straight into his arms, and he hugged her tight to his body.

  “Horses?” she asked when he let her loose enough to breathe.

  “I will explain everything to you soon, but right now I want you and Sara to grab anything in the shed that might be useful and mount up.”

  “Mount up, did you say, Alex? I’m wearing a bathrobe!” She was certain she sounded sarcastic, but he deserved it. Mount up! Humph!

  “Oh. Well… yeah…” His eyes swept down over her body appreciatively. Dirty bathrobe or no, she was still smokin’ hot. The corner of his mouth twitched a little as he tried to keep from laughing at her predicament. “I’m sorry, Love, but I am being serious. We’re going to have to figure something out. Things are bad, and we can’t stay here in an open shed.”

  She gave him a withering look, but went to go find what she could.

  In the end, Aurora had to ride side saddle, quite a feat without an actual saddle. The only things of use they had found in the shed were a small box of tools and a propane camping lantern, with the little tank about two-thirds full.

  They arrived at the barn and Sara began scooping handfuls of water from the stock tank into her mouth, drinking as fast as she could and not even caring about the ashy taste. Her stomach cramped from the sudden onslaught of cool water. She did not want to bring it all back up, so she sat down with her back against the wall and waited for her stomach to settle. The sun was low on the horizon, and the sky was painted in pinks, oranges and purples of incredible intensity.

  Aurora joined Sara outside and gasped when she first saw the sky. She looked to Sara. “Is it always like this?” she gushed.

  “Not usually quite this colorful. I think it must be the smoke or something.” Sara shrugged.

  Aurora was surprised at Sara’s casual attitude and thought that it must be incredible to have seen so many sunsets in your life that you can take them for granted. She laughed softly at herself when she realized that she must have been like that too, when she was alive; otherwise she would be able to remember what they had looked like back then.

  They searched through the barn and tack room for anything that they could use and built a nest of straw and horse blankets in the loft to sleep in later. Alex was digging through the pockets of an old jacket hanging from a nail in the tack room and found a partially smashed Snicker’s bar that was still sealed in the wrapper. He tossed it to Sara, who ate it as if it was the first meal she had eaten in a week.

  Sara found a sack of old clothes that it looked like someone was using for rags. Some of the old shirts had already been torn into pieces, but she found a couple of old, holey t-shirts that Aurora and Alex snatched up immediately. She was still wearing her uniform dress, and she thought that it looked a lot better than anything in the rag bag, so she kept her own clothes on.

  Alex’s t- shirt was a little tight, and she grinned naughtily at the picture he made with his muscled chest and arms, stretching the cotton to its limits.

  She also found an old pair of jeans with plenty of holes also. Aurora claimed those and they both laughed when the legs were too short, but the waist was so big that they would have fallen around her ankles if she had not found a length of rope to tie them up with. Alex just tied the sleeves of his coveralls around his waist and wore them like pants.

  When the hilarity of their little camping adventure began to fade, they grew quiet, each in their own thoughts until Aurora said, “Alex, I think you should tell us what you found.”

  All three of them lay on the blankets in the straw in the loft and Alex told them about everything he had seen. He left out the description of the bodies, but the women were not fooled, they inferred what he would not say.

  After a while, they all slept, exhausted, but Aurora woke every time she heard the horses stir below. She wasn’t sure what she was worried about, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was coming.

  Twelve

  In the morning, Alex opened his eyes to narrow shafts of light stabbing between the boards of the loft wall to land on his face. How odd to sleep at night and wake in the day, he thought.

  He heard the women talking softly below and he bypassed the ladder and jumped lightly to the floor below, landing on the balls of his perfectly healed feet, like a cat, almost silently.

  “Show off,” Aurora commented looking thoroughly unimpressed.

  Sara looked a little impressed, however, and he flashed his brilliant smile at her and said, “Good morning, Ladies.” He shook his head a little. “Do you know that I can’t actually remember the last time I wished someone a good morning? Morning! Just think of that!”

  “Alright,” Aurora said. “I admit, It is pretty great.”

  “It would be a little better with some breakfast. I am starving!” Sara informed them.

  “We are definitely going to have to come up with a plan, something more substantial than squatting in a neighbor’s barn.” Alex rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Sara, did you say that the radio interference was supposed to be temporary?”

  “Radio interference is supposed to be temporary, but earthquakes and blinding auroras aren’t supposed to be part of the deal either, so don’t count on it,” she replied.

  “I think that I should go back to the house this morning for the CB just in case. Also, I would really like to bury old Nate.” His lips drew into a grim line. “I don’t think that the funeral homes are picking anyone up for burial just now, and I don’t want to leave him like that.”

  “We could go with you.” Aurora offered.

  “I think it would be better if you stayed here. I won’t be long. Maybe you can come up with some ideas while I’m gone.” He squeezed her shoulder.

  When he rode off, Aurora decided to have a look around the property. The house was literally burned to the ground, but she decided to take a look anyway. At the edge of the yard, she spotted a cellar door. The wind, which had picked up considerably since yesterday, had covered it with so much dirt that she almost missed it because it blended in with the yard around it. She pulled open the door and revealed a set of steps leading into the darkness below.

  Darkness was not a problem for her Vampire sight, so she went in to explore. The cellar was small, maybe 12’ by 12’, but had a half dozen sets of shelves lining the walls. Each of the shelves held dozens of glass canning jars that appeared to be filled. It was too dim even for her eyes to see what the contents were, so she pulled a jar from the nearest shelf and muscled it open. The odor of peaches filled the little room.

  Aurora grabbed a few jars and carried them back to the barn. When Sara look
ed up at her, she made a little curtsey and said, “Breakfast is served m’lady.”

  Sara was thrilled. She sniffed at the open jar of peaches. “Do you think they are okay?” she asked hopefully.

  “I would be able to smell it if they were bad,” Aurora assured her. “Eat what you want; there must be hundreds more.

  The jars were not labeled, but Sara could see that Aurora brought two jars of peaches, one of something that looked like possibly apple butter and another that looked like pickled green tomatoes. She decided to stick with the peaches for her breakfast, and she ate a whole jar in minutes, even sipping at the sugary liquid they were floating in. She laughed at herself when she dribbled down her chin, and Aurora laughed with her.

  Sara wiped her chin, feeling so much better for having eaten. “Aurora, what about you and Alex? How long can you go without feeding?”

  “I’m hungry,” Aurora said, “but it will be several days before lack of blood actually starts to affect us in any significant way. At least, I think so. Obviously, something is happening to us. You know that we can walk in the sunlight, but that’s not the only change. I have been feeling a little off, not quite as strong, and I have a fluttery feeling in my stomach as if it’s a bit upset.”

  “Maybe you should take my blood.” Sara blurted the words out quickly so that she wouldn’t have a chance to chicken out.

  It wasn’t the part about giving blood that she was concerned about, but she was afraid she would be too embarrassed to tell Aurora that she wouldn’t mind being bitten. She blushed when she thought of the fantasies she had indulged in starring Alex and Aurora.

  Aurora looked at Sara’s flushed cheeks and knew exactly what that was all about. The Lake Vampires were so magnetic that they were often propositioned. “Let’s wait and see what happens,” she said. Sara looked so embarrassed that Aurora was compelled to add, “Sara, I sincerely thank you for your offer, and I may have to take you up on it in a day or two if you truly mean it.”

  Sara relaxed a little. “Of course, I mean it. You saved my life, but it’s more than that. I just want to help you like you’ve helped me.” And I want to know what your teeth would feel like on my flesh. She didn’t say that part, but she thought it, and it made her warm in places she wouldn’t have expected when thinking about another woman.

  “Thank you again, little dove, you honor me.” Aurora inclined her head at Sara.

  Wow, sometimes she sounds so formal and elegant, Sara thought. And all I was thinking was how hot she was.

  Oh my god, these people are so out of my league.

  Thirteen

  Alex rode up to the remains of his garage and dismounted. He went first to the Rover where he had been able to squeeze into the passenger side just enough to check the console. This time he just reached in the window. The oversized, walkie talkie style CB was still laying on the seat where he left it. He tried it again but got the same squeal as before. He turned it off, but put it in the bag he had tied to his saddle horn. He could check it again tomorrow.

  He could smell the decay as he pushed through the debris to where he had covered old Nate’s body with a tarp. There were fallen beams making it hard for him to maneuver and he was reduced to dragging the body by an arm underneath some of the beams to get it out.

  When he got Nate outside, he rolled him in the tarp and carried him to the walnut grove. He remembered that there was a shovel in the shed, so he retrieved it and buried Old Nate under a tree. He found some wood and fashioned a cross, tying the pieces together with some baling wire.

  Crosses didn’t bother Vampires. He thought he remembered that the story began circulating around in the twelfth century that crosses would burn Vampires.

  He brought the horse around from the garage and mounted. He sat there thinking that he should say something, but he couldn’t think what.

  The wind was whipping around more strongly than it had been, and it was blowing almost straight into his face making his eyes sting and hiding the scent of the man approaching. He was completely unaware, and he was just going to turn and leave when a voice came from the trees right behind him.

  “Get down from that horse and don’t try anything, mister.”

  Alex turned his head and saw a big man with black hair and gray eyes pointing a crossbow at him. He smiled. “Hi, Ryan”

  “Mr. Lake?” Ryan lowered the crossbow. “I didn’t realize it was you. I’m looking for Sara.” Just then he noticed the fresh grave and cross. “That’s not…”

  “No, it’s not Sara. It’s old Nate, I’m afraid.” Alex turned the horse toward Ryan and moved up next to him.

  “Old Nate? I’m sorry to hear it. He was a nice old guy. Look, Mr. Lake, I’m not looking for any trouble. I just came for Sara. Have you seen her?”

  “Sara is safe with Aurora and me. We are looking out for her.” Alex said a bit of protectiveness seeping into his voice.

  Ryan bristled a little. “She’s my little sister, and I need to make sure she is okay.”

  Alex, feeling insulted, shot back with, “I can assure you, she is fine. And where have you been for the last couple of years, Ryan?”

  Ryan looked at the ground and muttered something that sounded like, “hunting in the mountains.”

  He gave up all pretense of acting tough and said, “Please, Mr. Lake, will you tell me where she is? I need to see her.”

  Alex rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine, we’re at the first farm you come to about two miles East of here.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Lake. I will get there as fast as I can. Please, tell her that I’m on my way, and I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. It’s so crazy out there. I couldn’t call, and I was so afraid something might happen to her.” Ryan seemed to be spilling out all of his anxiety and gratitude.

  “Alright, Alright. Sara is fine. You will see for yourself. Just be calm.” Alex tried to assure him.

  “Right. I’m okay. Thanks again.” Ryan relaxed a little.

  Wow, Weres are such slaves to their emotions and their hormones.

  Ryan walked over to the gravesite. He said goodbye to old Nate and crossed himself.

  Alex raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. “You’re Catholic?” he asked.

  “Naw, just seemed like the right thing to do at a nice old guy’s funeral” Ryan grinned sheepishly.

  “Oh, wow. That’s rich,” Alex exclaimed, completely amused by the young Were.

  “Come on with me.” He held out his hand to Ryan, and when he took it, Alex pulled him up onto the horse behind him.

  They were trotting down the path, and Alex asked, “Did you say you were hunting in the mountains?”

  “Yeah” was all Ryan said.

  “That gives me an idea,” Alex said half to himself.

  They rode in silence until they were almost to the barn, and Ryan spoke again.

  “Hey, can I ask you something, Mr. Lake? Are you wearing my coveralls?”

  Fourteen

  Alex crouched in front of the crude map he drew with a stick on the dirt floor of the barn. Ryan mirrored his posture from the opposite side of the map. He didn’t mind that his view was upside-down because he knew the areas that Alex was describing intimately and he was having no trouble picturing the route.

  To see both men together this way, was a portrait of opposites, but it couldn’t be denied that there were many similarities between them, as well. Alex was classically handsome, almost beautiful, with his golden features and pale skin, and Ryan was sexuality in a bottle. He was dark where Alex was fair with skin tanned to a luscious bronze. His hair was short and naturally a little spiky, no products needed. The black shadow of stubble on his face made him appear just a little wild and dangerous.

  Both men were tall, within about an inch of each other, at around 6’4” and 6’5” and they had similar builds. Alex and Ryan, each displayed fit, muscled, physiques with broad, hard chests, wide shoulders, and narrow hips. They boasted well shaped legs and rippled abs and their corded arms look as
if they could crush rock.

  They also seemed a lot alike in the way they carried themselves, totally confident and comfortable with their bodies. It was obvious, though, that Alex was the more serious and brooding of the two, his brow furrowed with worry so often. Ryan was much more likely than Alex to flash his sparkling teeth in an easy smile.

  That smile was in evidence the moment Alex and Ryan walked through the door, and he spotted his sister, Sara. She ran at him and jumped straight into his arms. He caught her easily and held her tight with his eyes closed and a wide grin that didn’t leave his face for at least fifteen minutes. It was still there when Sara introduced him to Aurora, who had never met him even though he had lived on the Lake estate for almost a year at one point.

  Back then, Alex had told Aurora about his brief encounter with Ryan, mentioning that Sara’s stepbrother was a Were and that he didn’t believe that Sara knew anything about it. He never mentioned how good-looking Ryan was though, she mused.

  Aurora found herself looking at his perfect smile and wondering what it looked like when he let his Were canines down. Vampires were inherently sexual creatures and there was no stopping their lusty thoughts. Weres weren’t much different in that respect, she thought as it was obvious to her that Ryan was trying terribly hard not to stare at her breasts in the thin cotton rag-bag t-shirt she wore. I guess that’s only fair, she decided when she found herself checking him out while he wasn’t looking.

  Alex noticed Aurora appreciating Ryan’s body and raised an eyebrow at her. She just grinned at him and shrugged, and he rolled his eyes. As usual, they conversed without saying a word.