by Fall, Carly
The sat together, talking quietly for another hour. Between the whiskey and her injuries, Holly's energy depleted quickly.
Aiden carried her to bed and tucked her in with affection as only a male in love with his female could.
Chapter 42
As Holly slept, Aiden went to check in with Thaddeus. He had seen some disturbing news on the TV earlier, and he needed to talk to Thaddeus about it.
He heard soft music playing from the TV room. The gentle, haunting sounds of Iron and Wine's Flightless Bird, American Mouth filtered out. It was a pretty song, one he had heard Thaddeus play many times.
Aiden preferred 70's rock. Give him a little AC/DC or Rolling Stones any day. He quietly pushed on the partially closed door.
Thaddeus had Emily in his arms, slowly swaying side to side. Her long blonde hair hung freely down her back. They looked at each other as if no one else in the world could possible exist. The love they shared was something to admire, Aiden thought. He hoped he and Holly could one day get to that place, and that he didn't screw it up. He wasn't much of a dancer though. Besides, how do you dance with your female to AC/DC's Highway to Hell?
"Go away, Aiden," Thaddeus said without looking away from Emily.
"Can't."
"Yes you can. You simply turn around and put one foot in front of the other. And don't let the door hit you in the ass. It's not rocket science."
Aiden didn't move, just leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms over his chest.
The song ended a moment later and Thaddeus turned to Aiden. "Apparently it is rocket science."
Aiden shrugged. "You're the one who signed up to be in charge of shit. We have stuff we need to go over."
Emily gave Thaddeus a quick kiss and a smile, and made her way out the door. She flashed a grin at Aiden and squeezed his arm, then disappeared.
"This better be something important, like the fucking sun exploded."
"It's close."
Aiden went to the remote and brought up the newscast he had DVR'ed earlier on the huge TV mounted on the wall. They watched the man with the shellacked hair wearing too much make-up and the too-white teeth talk about the string of murders and disappearances in the Reno area. Police thought it the work of the serial killer who was escalating.
"Got to be Victor," Thaddeus mumbled. "My guess is that he's letting all those little fuckers loose to do whatever they want. Which is obviously kill a bunch of people."
Aiden nodded. "He needs to die, Thad. This can't keep going on. Just for the stuff he has caused in this house, he needs to die."
Thaddeus nodded. As they watched the rest of the newscast, Aiden felt his brain churning. It was that missing piece of the puzzle he had lost when he had been hit downtown. It was closer now, just out of his grasp. He closed his eyes, trying to make it come forward and reveal itself, but it wasn't having any part of that. He cursed.
"You okay?" Thaddeus asked, looking over at him.
Aiden rubbed his eyes and opened them. "Yeah. Just need some Excedrin. Headache."
Aiden hit the off switch. "I'm not going out tonight. Tomorrow, yes, but not tonight. Holly needs me."
Thaddeus nodded. "Agreed. We hit it hard tomorrow night."
Cy came into the room. "Good evening, boys," he said, not waiting for a response. "Rohan's on the satellite phone, at The Council's cave, and wants us all gathered for an update."
Both Aiden and Thaddeus were silent for a beat. "Why do I have the feeling that this is really bad fucking news?" Aiden murmured.
"Agreed," Thaddeus said, putting a hand through his hair. "Agreed."
Chapter 43
"Rohan, I've got Aiden and Thaddeus with me. I'm going to put you on speaker phone, okay?" Cy hit a couple of buttons and hung up the handset. All three stared at the phone.
"Can you hear us, Rohan?"
"Yes." The deep, baritone voice shimmied around the room.
"It's Thaddeus, Rohan. Where you been?"
There was a chuckle that echoed out of the small holes of the speaker and vibrated around the room. "Well, well. Congratulations on your promotion, brother. I always knew you were cut out for great things, but God help all vampires with you being in charge."
Aiden and Cy grinned as Thaddeus said, "No shit, huh? Don't know what Mother Nature was thinking, but yeah, here I am."
The voice became serious. "You'll do well, Thaddeus. You sending me up here was a good idea. I just have some bad news about it."
Aiden felt a buzz go off in his head, and his heart began to beat as if he were in a panic. It was like he couldn't get enough air, and sweat broke out on his forehead. He felt something rising from the depths of his subconscious, and he stared at the speaker waiting to hear Rohan's voice again, not moving a muscle. Somehow, Rohan was triggering the missing piece of information he had lost when he had been beaten on the streets of Reno. Something to do with Natalie's death. It was so close.
"So, I'm up here in the lovely mountains of Ecuador," Rohan began, "and it seems, fearless leader, you have a bit of trouble."
"Go on," Thaddeus said, putting his hands in his head and closing his eyes. "I don't have quite enough going on. Just a bunch of vampires killing people in the streets of Reno, female vampires being kidnapped and committing suicide, and one motherfucker named Victor Marano who seems to be behind it all."
"Female vampires? Really?"
"Later, Rohan," Cy said. "Just tell us what's going on up there."
"Okay. Make sure there aren't any children, puppies, or anything breakable around though, Cy."
Rohan then explained how he arrived at the cave of The Council just before the sun set. He went inside the dark and dank place. There were spiders and cockroaches that had made the place their home, as well as a couple of snakes that had curled up in the corners.
The place wasn't big. It was only about twenty feet by twenty feet, with brick beds to house five bodies. The ceiling was low, and it was hard to stand up in.
"The most obvious problems is that there are only four bodies here," Rohan said.
A couple of things happened at once.
Thaddeus stood up from his chair so fast he knocked it backwards, and began a steady stream of judicious curses as he paced around the table.
The next thing that happened was Aiden's memory came back like a steam engine without breaks. He knew who Victor Marano was. He was a member of The Council. That bastard had been cloaking himself to mask as a hybrid vampire—half human, half vampire. This was the elusive memory that had plagued Aiden since he had been beaten and left for dead on the street. Victor Marano was a full-bred vampire. He had killed Natalie because he wanted the babe she carried within her. He had wanted the babe to help begin his army of kids who he could mold and create to undermine everything that the Behavior Doctrine laid out. He would nurture the kids into full-bred vampires, ready and willing to kill whenever, with no regard for human life. And it would be so much easier if they were already half vampire, wouldn't it? There wouldn't be any of the shots that Emily's son Brandon had described. The DNA would already be there, and all it would need was nurturing to bring out the beast within.
That meant that Victor had to be watching Aiden and Natalie for a while. How long, Aiden didn't know. It meant that he knew Aiden was a first generation half-breed, and when Victor had seen that he had fallen in love with a human, and was expecting a babe with her, Aiden guessed Victor would need to have it.
Aiden traveled back to that night, a tight knot of nausea coiling in his gut. Victor would have had to wait until the sun went down to strike at Natalie. Aiden had also waited until the sun went down, and gone looking for her. Victor had been the one to get to her first, but before he could get the babe out of her womb he must have been interrupted by the humans who heard Natalie's cries. Aiden had been too late, arriving only to find her blood.
Instead of rage coursing through him as he expected, he felt a sadness so deep it shook his bones as much as the rage would have.
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br /> His eyes hadn't left the speaker in the middle of the long table. Thaddeus's carrying on was only background music to the symphony of madness and sadness that was playing in his head. Somehow, he needed to get the words out and let Thaddeus know what he had pieced together.
"It's him," he said quietly.
Cy looked over at him. "What?"
"It's him. Victor. It's him. The one missing."
The room went dead quiet. Thaddeus stopped cursing and pacing and looked at Aiden.
"How do you know this?" Cy asked quietly.
Aiden shook his head. Why couldn't he stop looking at the damn box in the middle of the table? "Think about it, Cy. Look at Brandon. Victor is Brandon's father. Look at how strong he is. Thaddeus, think about those two kids who killed the drug dealer in the alley. Think about how strong they were. And why were they killed? Because Victor, or whatever cocksucking member of The Council he is, doesn't want anyone talking. No information. And Natalie . . . "
He thought about the stab wounds on Natalie. They had all been around her belly, as if the murder didn't want to hurt the babe.
"He wanted my son," Aiden growled. "He wanted Robert. Robert would be the son of a first generation half-breed. He would want my son for his twisted army, just like he wanted Brandon. Just like I bet all those other kids are first generation half-breeds."
Thaddeus let out a snarl at the mention of Brandon. He considered the boy his son, no one else's. As far as Thaddeus was concerned, there was a huge difference between being a parent and a sperm donor, and Victor, or whatever his name was, only provided the DNA. Thaddeus provided the love, the nurturing, the roof over his head, not to mention the killer X-Box he had just given the kids yesterday.
"Which one's missing?" Cy's asked. He was up pacing now as well, his accent thick as it always was when he became emotional.
"Well, I'm going by memory here, but I think it's Vladislav," Rohan said quietly.
"Is Rusalka there?" Thaddeus said. "Is her body there?"
"Yes."
Thaddeus told Rohan to put a knife to her heart, as well as the rest of The Council. Then he was to set some C-4 explosives and blow up the side of the mountain.
"Thaddeus," Rohan said. "You know I hate our mother as much as you do." Cy and Aiden grunted. "Well as much as we all do. We all had our own special hell with her."
There weren't any arguments.
"However, would it be okay if I used some battery charged UV lights I brought with me? That way we know they're bodies will be ash, and we don't have to explain the side of a mountain suddenly bursting apart to the local folks below."
Silence penetrated the room as they looked at the speakerphone.
All were thinking of the treatment Rohan had gotten at the hands of their mother. No matter how hard he tried to master the weapons and fighting, it was never good enough. If there had been one brother who had been smacked around more than the rest, it was Rohan. There had been abuse with all of them, but with Rohan, it had been straight up cruelty.
"You want to watch her burn," Thaddeus stated as his eyes met Aiden's and Cy's. Both shrugged their shoulders. Aiden totally understand that.
"Yes, I do." Rohan's voice was quiet, but still reverberated around the room.
"Make her fry, Rohan. I don't give a shit," Thaddeus said. "But then I need you here."
"No."
"Yes."
Rohan sighed. "I have a life, Thaddeus. I have my dogs. I just can't pick up and move to another continent."
Thaddeus, Cy, and Aiden all looked at each other. The looks they gave each other said it all. They had all been apart for too long. They were all just learning how wonderful a family could be, and they wanted Rohan in. Besides, Rohan could be very useful in their fight against Victor. They needed him to do day patrols on the buildings where they thought Victor would be holding the kids he had turned into vampires. They had a feeling Victor was moving them either at sunrise or sunset, which always put them one step behind.
"C'mon, Rohan," Thaddeus said. "Pack up your dogs and get on a plane. In fact, I'll fly you in a private jet over here so that your dogs don't have to go into crates. We need you over here, man. And we want you here. Things are good, Rohan."
There was a long silence on the other end.
"I'll come for a visit. That's it. And you're still paying for my plane."
Cy, Thaddeus, and Aiden looked at each other. The kids were going to be excited about those dogs, that was for sure.
"Now, if you will excuse me," Rohan said, "I have some vampires to torch."
Chapter 44
Aiden hovered on the edge of sleep as Holly stirred next to him.
She flipped over and put her head on his chest, throwing her arm over his him. He slept in sweats, but not a shirt, and she gently ran her hand over his pecks to his stomach.
"You better knock that off," he said groggily.
Instead, she kissed him.
He brought his hand to the back of her neck and held her close.
"Holly," he said gruffly, opening his eyes. "You need to stop. You need to heal."
"I'm good, she said, letting her hand travel over his stomach again. She went for the waistband of his sweats, and his hand stopped hers.
"Holly . . . " she didn't let him finish, silencing him with a kiss.
Aiden was two steps shy of losing it. He was certain that he had never wanted anything so bad in his life as he wanted to be inside this female. His female. He wanted to claim her as his. He wanted his bite mark to sit on her neck, letting anyone who laid eyes on her know that she was spoken for. But something held him back. He wasn't ready to make that claim quite yet.
Her lavender smell was strong now after feeding from him two times. He had been correct—the smell burrowed up his nose and turned his brain to jelly. As her lips worked against his, he became lost. His resolve to stop her faded like smoke. He let go of her hand and moaned as it went under the sweats.
Holly fisted his long, thick arousal, her hand barely making it all the way around. Aiden loved the way her small hand moved up and down his shaft, getting him more cranked up. If she was game, so was he. The first thing he had to do was dispatch all those annoying clothes, and he did so with quick efficiency, ripping her nightshirt in half down the front.
She lay naked in front of him, her dark blue eyes hooded, a small smile playing on her lips. Her bruises were healing. Most had turned an awful shade of yellow, but she was still beautiful to him. He started at her head and began kissing each bruise gently. He loved the way she tasted, loved her lavender scent.
There was one particularly nasty bruise on the inside of her thigh. As he kissed it, he felt a growl rumble through him, his anger spiking.
"Don't, Aiden," she said quietly. "Don't ruin this."
He took a deep breath and calmed himself. He then moved on down her body until he reached her toes. It seemed they were the only body parts that hadn't been damaged.
He met her mouth hungrily.
"Turn over," he growled, and she complied.
He did the same to her back, starting at her neck and moving his way down, kissing each bruise gently. He loved the feeling of the bones of her spine, and he ran his finger slowly down her back. The sight of her round butt made his cock even harder, if that was possible. His finger slipped between her legs and he felt her slickness. Holy shit, she was wet; so ready for him. He inhaled her sweet scent.
He gently laid on top of her, careful not to put his full weight on her. He slowly spread her legs with his own, and his cock found her core. He rubbed the tip up and down, and it was her turn to moan.
With a quick thrust, he entered her, and stopped. Sweet Jesus, she was better than he remembered. So hot. So tight. He kissed her cheek and sucked on her earlobe as he began to move again.
Aiden felt her getting tighter with each thrust. He also knew he wanted to see her face when she came. He pulled out and she began to argue.
He quickly lied back on the bed and
lifted her on top of him. She stood him up and descended on him. She rocking on him, her hands planted on his chest. He realized he was looking at his fantasies of when he was incapacitated in her bed. The sight of her on top of him, her small breasts swaying, her dark blue eyes boring into him made him come with such a force his back bowed off the bed. Her orgasm came shortly afterward, clenching him as wave after wave of pleasure ripped through her body.
Neither was sated. Aiden rolled her gently to her back, kissing her deeply.
"I love you," she said, her hands tracing his face.
He kissed her again, unable to make the words form on his lips, hoping that his body showed her the love his lips were unable to say.
Chapter 45
Victor lay on the thin cot with the white sheet in the windowless warehouse in Verdi, Nevada waiting for his scientist to show up with the youth serum. He was currently housing all of his boys, and a few vampire men he had recruited there. He could hear them in the main room. It sounded as if they had brought some humans back with them and were doing a little teasing before they went in for the kill. He could hear the humans screaming, and he wished his sons and their keepers would hurry the fuck up and finish things off in there. The screaming was giving him a headache. With that he got up and shut the steel door that separated the office from the main room. Finally. Silence.
He hoped the guy had it correct this time, because Victor could feel his time had been reduced to weeks, maybe months if he was lucky. If he didn't get the regenerating hormones the scientist had extracted from the boys, he would be dead soon. And frankly, he had way too much to do, too much mayhem to disperse of to die so quickly.
The scientist walked in through the outside door. He was a tall man with dark skin and dark hair down to his shoulders. "Mr. Marano, I think we have it this time. This should really help with the Multiple Sclerosis." Victor had told the scientist that he had contracted the disease, and that was why he moved awkwardly, not because he was a full-bred vampire on his last days of life.
Victor rolled up his sleeve and closed his eyes. He felt the needle go into his vein. He waited for the feeling of rejuvenation to course through him.