Birth of Jaiden

by Malone Wright, Jennifer

  “Psst,” Alex motioned to Danielle and Jackie, “this way.”

  Suddenly, the musty scent of another vampire wafted through the air around him. He stopped instantly. The scent wasn’t Chris so it had to be another.

  “Through that door,” he whispered and pointed toward the door at the end of the cave. Danielle and Jackie nodded their silent acknowledgement and moved to the front so he could stay behind them in case someone was following them.

  Danielle stopped in front of the closed wooden door and gently tested the knob to see if it was locked. She held up her fingers like Alex had before, three fingers up. Three, two, one. Then slowly, she turned the knob and eased open the door.

  Another narrow staircase twisted down into the depths of the mountain. The scent of vampire began to grow stronger, as did the screams of trapped humans.

  Danielle led the way down the stairs with Alex still in the rear. Once they reached the bottom landing, Danielle motioned for them to stop and cautiously peeked around the corner.

  “It’s the room with the archway,” she whispered.

  Alex nodded. He knew they needed to go in there.

  “There aren’t any guards here. I doubt they are in there.”

  Alex nodded again. It made sense but they still needed to go in and let Jackie plant some of her light bombs. Another countdown and they stormed the archway. Alex took the center, Danielle the left and Jackie the right. They entered the throne room with their weapons drawn. Several armed vampires awaited them on the steps in front of Malcolm’s jeweled thrones. Alex counted seven of them. Seven against three.

  Well, we just took six. This should be easy.

  The vampires who awaited them were large, unarmed soldiers. They wore tight black tee shirts and jeans. Their eyes glowed red against their pale skin, and they drooled visibly over the coppery scent of Jackie’s blood.

  Jackie, however, was the first one to advance against them. Her crossbow ready, she took a single step forward.

  The one simple move was all the reason the vampires needed to charge them. Like lightning, within a split second, the vampires had them circled. Trapped! They had fallen into the trap perfectly. He did not take his eyes off of the vampires within his sight.

  Danielle held her sword out in front of her, raised high enough to slash the throat of one of the vampires. She knew it would only take one wrong move and they would attack. She decided to speak instead. “Leave us be and we will let you live.”

  None of the guards spoke but kept their formation. Alex suddenly realized that they were waiting for something.

  Alex heard a sharp click. He tore his eyes away from the vampires in front of him and turned in time to see a bolt escape from Jackie’s crossbow. “Jackie!”

  Then, everything happened within a matter of seconds.

  The vampire it was directed at quickly reached out and caught the bolt, then flicked his wrist to fire the bolt back at them.

  Danielle gasped and dropped her sword. It hit the floor with an earsplitting clang. The vampires did not hurry into an attack. Alex figured they had orders to capture them alive. Alex, however, did rush to Danielle, only to stop short in front of her.

  “Danielle?”

  The bolt the vampire had thrown was lodged into Danielle’s stomach. She had her eyes closed and stood silent as a statue.

  Slowly, her hands crept around her middle and grasped the bolt. When she pulled it out, her eyes snapped open and Alex staggered backward. Her eyes were a bright, blinding blue and a shaft of light escaped from the hole where the bolt had been.

  The other vampires scattered backward too, away from the light.

  Another look at her eyes and Alex knew she was not hurt, she was angry.

  Then, a loud crackling sound spewed forth from her body and the light began to spread across her entire body like connecting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The vampires continued to step back. They probably had never seen anything like that before.

  Glowing fiercely, so bright even Alex didn’t know if he wanted to chance getting near her, she finally let loose an ear piercing scream and began to march forward toward the vamps. They ran. Humans and vampires they knew they could kill but they had never witnessed an entity quite like Danielle.

  She continued forward and a loud snap echoed throughout the throne room and from Danielle’s body emerged the largest, most beautiful set of white feathery wings he had ever seen.

  Jackie, quite literally unimpressed with Danielle’s show, had been waiting for her moment the entire time. “Alex!” She kicked one of the large flashlights toward him and carried two in her own hand. “Kill them before she does.”

  He snatched up the UV light and understood. They couldn’t let the angel kill anyone, even those guys. Jackie had her lights on and the vampires finally realized what was happening. They had been so distracted by Danielle that they hadn’t paid any attention to Jackie or Alex. Jackie waved her flashlight across the entire group of vampires and they all began moaning and screaming as their black tee shirts burned away from their bubbling skin.

  Alex flicked on the light and waved it across them. They just kept waving the lights and burning them. Then, one of them finally had enough and charged forward. Alex was ready with his sword raised. He jumped high into the air and, with little force, sliced the vamp’s head clean off. The dark vampire blood stained the floor and ran under Alex’s feet. He washed the light over the remains one last time to be sure.

  Across the room, Danielle floated two feet in the air, held a guard by the throat in each hand and squeezed their throats. Being vampires, that didn’t actually deter them much physically. But when she squeezed a little bit harder, their heads literally blew off their necks. Bloody pieces of vampire pulp landed everywhere.

  “Gross!” Alex heard Jackie mumble loudly.

  Danielle threw the bodies to the ground and lunged for the nearest vampire. Jackie flashed her light over the decapitated bodies and they quickly turned to smoldering ashes. In the meantime, Alex had sprung for the vampire in closest proximity to him.

  His target stretched out his arm in mid-air and grabbed his leg, sending him tumbling to the ground. He was up in an instant with his sword still in his hand. A ray of UV slashed across the vampire’s fiery eyes and blinded him. The screeching that came from within the depths of the undead body rang uncomfortably into Alex’s ears.

  Good going, Jackie!

  He turned, performed a rough pirouette and swung his sword. It slid easily through the vampire’s neck like through butter. The head tilted and fell to the ground with a dull thud. He could hear Jackie call his name and turned to find the other two vampires dead as well. The two Danielle had killed were little more than piles of limbs.

  Jackie stood bent over, panting heavily and staring at Danielle who still radiated the bright light. Her wings stood out, extended, like she wanted to fly away.

  “What. Was. That?” Alex demanded of the glowing angel.

  Slowly, little by little, her light faded. She did not speak, nor did she make eye contact with either of them.

  While he waited for Danielle to calm down and quit glowing, he bent down to pick up the vampire head with the intention to throw it in the pile with the pieces of Danielle’s kill. At the same time as he grasped the head by its hair, a ray of UV light ran over his hand.

  He sucked in his breath and yanked his hand back. Quickly, he examined it but didn’t see the expected burn.

  “I’m so sorry, Alex!” Jackie hurried to him. “I didn’t see you reaching out…you’re so fast.”

  He continued to hold his hand up at eye level. Nothing, not one single mark to prove he had just been touched by artificial sunlight.

  “Nothing,” he whispered.

  “What?” Jackie grabbed his hand and pulled it toward her. She examined it, and then looked up at him with surprise and suspicion. “How is this possible?”

  “I...” He remembered Jeremiah’s warning of secrecy. “I don’t know,” he wh
ispered, for lack of a better explanation.

  Jackie still had a hold of his hand. With her other hand, she flipped on the flashlight again and pointed it directly at the back of his white hand. Again, nothing happened.

  It’s happened. Jeremiah did it!

  Jackie dropped his hand. “We’re running out of time.”

  She turned to Danielle, who had finally recovered to her previous self, without the wings or light. Now, she stood motionless and stared at the mess before her, a horrified expression on her face.

  Alex understood her horror. It was one thing for her to fight, to hurt, but to kill was another story. He wanted to know what happened to her, why she had become so ruthless. Maybe, being an angel didn’t always mean you were good.

  He shrugged it off. There was no time to think about that; he would have to ask her later.

  “Let’s move,” Jackie demanded.

  “Come on, Danielle.” He grasped Danielle by the hand. “Snap out of it.”

  She didn’t snap out of it.

  “Ugh.” He pulled on her hand. “Let’s go.”

  She stayed frozen, unmoving. Alex did not want to have to pick her up and carry her. That was a sure way to die. He lifted his palm to give her a gentle pat on the cheek, which would feel like a slap to her.

  “Alex, maybe you shouldn’t do that,” Jackie said.

  “Do you want to do it?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “You go ahead.”

  He closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself to deal with the angel of death as soon as his palm connected. But, before he could truly commit to the act, he heard the sound of fast paced footsteps quickly approaching and then, a door opened and Malcolm’s voice filled the room.

  “Well, well, look what we have here. Are you looking for someone, Alexander?”

  37

  Deanna moved quickly and crouched low behind Chris, who followed the map in his head. It wasn’t easy, though, because the directions dissipated rather quickly. Their mission was to find Isabella and Stewart then get them out of there but Victoria hadn’t seen where Malcolm was keeping Isabella and Stewart. So, there was basically no plan on how to find them, and the tunnels inside the mountain were very confusing.

  She knew Michael was behind her tucking his little bombs into the dark crevices of the cave walls as he followed.

  Chris stopped. “Where the hell should we go?”

  The tunnels forked off into two different directions.

  “Just pick one, Chris,” Deanna hissed, “we’re running out of time.”

  “Fine.” Chris shrugged and strode forward into the tunnel which veered to the left.

  Like in the rest of the caves, torches lined the walls and lit the way for them. Deanna silently thanked God they weren’t completely in the dark. It was fine for Chris to be in the dark but neither Deanna nor Michael could fight without being able to see.

  After about three minutes of walking and seeing nothing, Chris halted in front of Deanna so suddenly that she slammed into his hard back.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “Shhh.”

  She heard a few clicks from behind her, most likely Michael engaging his crossbow.

  Chris turned and shoved Deanna up against the shadows of the damp walls. Beside her, Michael followed suit and crouched low into the darkness.

  “He will smell you,” Chris whispered, his stone lips pressed up against her ear.

  She sucked in her breath and tried to shake the tickle of longing for his lips on her. She was in the middle of a vampire lair for crying out loud.

  Just then, a woman with curly blond hair emerged from within a dark corner of the tunnel. She stopped, lifted her nose into the air and sniffed. Slowly, she cocked her head one way, then the other, until she focused on the three of them. The curly blond ran her eyes over Michael and back to Deanna. It was like she tried to decide who would taste better.

  Finally, her gaze dropped down onto Deanna’s throat. Deanna watched as her tongue slid out, moistening her scarlet lips. She lifted her hands and fluffed her curly hair.

  Then, she lunged.

  It happened quicker than Deanna could see. Chris was in front of her and shielded her. A bolt from Michael’s crossbow pierced skin and lodged into Curly’s heart just as her fangs sank into the right side of Chris’s abdomen.

  Chris moaned and then fisted her blond locks in his hands like a man in the throes of passion. With lightning fast movement, he yanked her head till the snap echoed in the tunnels of the cave. He shoved her body down and angrily kicked it hard.

  Michael brushed his hand over Deanna’s lower back before he stood over Curly’s body. “Turn around,” he ordered Chris.

  Chris, who was occupied with examining his bite, did as he was told.

  Michael flicked the switch on his biggest UV light and aimed it at the dead vampire on the cave floor. Instantly, she disintegrated into a pile of dust.

  Michael nodded appreciatively at the ashes. “Let’s move.”

  They moved at a faster pace than before with Michael in the lead and Deanna sandwiched in between him and Chris.

  Time was really beginning to be an issue. Deanna feared that if time ran too short, they wouldn’t be able to rescue Isabella and Stewart.

  “Stop.” Chris grasped Deanna by the wrist. “Do you hear that?”

  Deanna shook her head and looked questioningly at Michael. “You?”

  He shook his head.

  She knew Chris could hear far better than either of them so it didn’t surprise her that he could hear something they couldn’t.

  “Keep going.” He waved them on.

  Nearly a minute later, the tunnel curved into a wider hallway with two doors on their left side and another doorway directly in front of them.

  Deanna could hear what Chris had been talking about. On the other side of the wall, she heard a sort of weeping and praying all in one.

  “Please, God, please bring your angels to help me! I believe, I swear I believe! Please, God.”

  When the male voice stopped, the weeping grew louder.

  Chris nodded to Michael and Deanna. They raised their weapons, and then with an ear splitting crack, he kicked in the door. Deanna flew into the room with Michael at her side and they split one to the left and one to the right. Chris appeared between them, covering the center with sword drawn.

  Deanna scanned the room quickly. It appeared to be a makeshift hospital room. Green curtains separated hospital beds, and lots of portable machines and sliver trays were scattered all over the place.

  Deanna saw no one. She made eye contact with Michael. He shook his head so she kept her stakes ready. Chris cautiously moved into the center of the room, walking in front of the curtains and beds.

  The only thing they could hear was the man’s weeping. Chris glanced back and pinched his nose, indicating he could smell a vamp.

  “Who’s there?” the weeping man called. “I heard the door break. I know someone’s here.”

  Chris crossed in front of the man’s bed and made a “shhhing noise.”

  “Ah. Thank you, Lord! An angel has come. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.”

  Chris shook his head vigorously and tried to get the man to keep quiet.

  Suddenly, Deanna felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. Slowly, she turned around to check behind her.

  There, like a statue, a male vampire stood with his mouth posed into a smirk.

  Shocked, Deanna knew he could have already bitten her if he had wanted to; she knew that one was a fighter. He wanted to toy with them.

  He grabbed her by the throat and swung her around so her back was pressed up against his hard chest. With a loud scream, she swung her stake backward, in hopes of grazing him enough to let her go.

  “It’s gotta be the heart, baby,” he whispered to her while Michael and Chris aimed their weapons at him.

  Michael had his crossbow and Chris a sword but neither of them would be able to get to the vampi
re with her in the way and they both knew it. The UV light would burn the vampire but he might hurt Deanna if he saw it coming.

  The man who had been weeping now hollered at the top of his lungs, “Release me and I will fight. Please. Angel!”

  Chris ignored him and focused on Deanna.

  Michael did the same. They both tried their hardest to figure out how to get around Deanna.

  Deanna forced herself not to be afraid. Those vampires, much like dogs, could sense fear.

  “Come and get her.” The vampire teased them in a low voice. “Come on, play with me.”

  He roughly tilted her head to the side and ran his tongue all the way from her jaw line to her cheekbone. His strong fingers found their way from around her waist up to her breasts, grabbed one and dug his fingers in.

  Deanna felt like her boob was going to explode from the weight of the vampire’s fingers. She wanted to cry on the surface, but deep down, she was pissed. With her teeth clenched and her breath ragged, she tried again to at least puncture the vamp enough for him to let her go.

  “Angel, I know you have been sent to free me. Please, release me now.”

  “Struggle all you want,” the vampire whispered, “you are still going to die.”

  She felt his hand move from her breast and crawl down her midsection until he reached her upper thighs. He rubbed her thighs hard and licked her earlobe.

  Deanna couldn’t help it; tears escaped and fell from her eyes down her cheeks.

  “Aw, honey, don’t cry.” His hand ran across her thigh and upward. He slipped his hand inside the waistline of her pants. “You’ll have a reason to cry later, but not now.”

  She sucked back a sob.

  The whole time he was feeling her up he kept an eye on Michael and Chris. More than playing with her, he was playing with them.

  Michael held his stance with his crossbow raised. Deanna caught his eye and silently begged for help. It was one of those times when she really wished she had telepathy.