Minty

by M. Garnet

  “Your Master and the knife are pleased. We are coming for you. When we take you from there, them the knife will take special revenge on the one who hurt you. When we leave, you will hold the knife until we reach a safe area. Your Master does this for you, but don’t expect leniency from me. You will do as I say. You will receive dark and pain. But it will only be from your Master and the knife. It will never be from anyone else again. The pain will bring pleasure. Tell me you will kiss the knife.”

  “Yes Master, I want to kiss the knife.”

  “We will be there soon.”

  She went to the table and climbed onto it. She pulled her legs up, folded them under her, sitting patiently to wait.

  Dawn came quietly. One of the guards looked into the room. He was surprised, turned to nudge the other guard who came into view to join him looking through the window at her. They must have decided not to do anything, just turned their backs.

  It was several hours before the door was opened. They brought in the same drive thru meal and set it on the table beside her. She hadn’t moved, but she watched them carefully.

  She stretched out her legs then drew them back up under her. She didn’t need food today, today the Master was coming. She smiled, watching through the glass as the men moved around, traded places. She was watching dead men.

  * * * *

  Rex didn’t know how Alex knew they had taken her to Kansas City. They had gotten info from the nightwalker in the basement about the ties in Rome. They had relayed it back to Rad. Radames had come with more men to mop up the rest of the rogues in the area. They dusted the other two in the basement, leaving the studded one for Rad.

  Rad had talked to Rex on the phone as Alex was indicating he was leaving for Kansas City after going into a trance. “Go with him, ask him how many men he needs and take them. You are in charge, and Rex, I want reports, regularly.”

  Rex relayed his orders to Alex.

  Alex’s reply was strange, since it was precise. “I need you to find a map of the industrial area of Kansas City. Find out how many fast food drive thru restaurants are within a mile or two. I need a survey team for each restaurant. We are looking for this car.” He handed Rex a slip of paper that described a Ford sedan with a license number on it.

  They were in an Audi, breaking speed limits heading west. Rex opened his laptop. He spent some time searching then hit his phone. He had one car behind them but he called a contact in Kansas City, Mo. The two cities were sisters, side by side. He identified the fact that he was a Lieutenant for Radames. He explained that he was in the company of Council Lord Alexander Bider. Suddenly he had another voice on the phone and he had all the help he needed.

  He wanted another car for the extra men in the car behind. He needed two other cars with two men each. He gave them the info on the car to look for at the drive thrus, with instructions not to interfere but to follow and report.

  At the speeds Alex drove it only took one fill up to get to Kansas. With the team in place, Rex and Alex just cruised, waiting for reports. It was late afternoon before the call came in. Alex slammed on the brakes as Rex listened. He looked over at Alex and nodded.

  “Turn around, we are two blocks north.”

  “Wait, I have to do something.” Alex leaned back and closed his eyes.

  * * * *

  “Minty, are you ready, because the knife is very, very thirsty.”

  “Master, what would you have me do.”

  “We want you to get under the table. Stay there until we come to take you out. Tell me you will obey, tell the knife you will obey.”

  “I obey my Master and the knife.”

  He opened his eyes and sighed.

  Alex drove slowly, pulled over and parked. They were about one block away when Rex hit his phone. Two men came out from between two large buildings, walking down to join them.

  “One street over, tall new building, three entrances with overhead doors.”

  Alex looked up. “There are skylights—get someone on the roof. There are also two side doors on the right side. Do we have a vehicle tough enough to ram one of the overhead doors?”

  “We have a Ram truck with full front grille and bumper guard. It will take any door down.”

  Alex nodded. “Okay, we go in ten, truck through the door, drop down through the skylight, I will be going down through one of them, and teams through the side doors. The only prisoner I need is a tall thin nightwalker wearing a red satin jacket.” He looked around and saw nods from all. He took off.

  He went over two roofs and found the slightly angled roof with the skylights. He walked as a shadow across the roof. He felt her, her heartbeat, her soft smell, her touch of mind, trusting him completely, him and the knife. He was totally hers. Fuck. It had always been the other way around with the females in his life, a touch, a take and a leave. This one possessed him—there was no leaving.

  He went down as a shadow, but formed solid as he hit the floor with a loud thud. There was a man at the window who turned at the noise, freezing in place. Then Alex launched himself through the glass, sent the man over the rail as he turned and plunged his knife deep into the heart of the second nightwalker who was slow in reacting. Big mistake.

  There were two rogues starting up the stairs using the speed that Vamps could use, but the rest of the team was in place. The truck slammed through the door, peeling the folding metal back over as it drove completely into the building, coming to rest behind the Ford sedan.

  The nightwalkers coming in were well trained, loyal to Radames, impressed that a Council Lord was actually fighting in person. They backed up each other. Although the rogues were tough and ready they did not have the same impulse to impress. No one among the attackers wanted to be less than the best in front of the fighting Lord.

  Although Alex was already flying into the first nightwalker up the stairs, a teammate was on the back of the second one. The entire fight, at the speed of nightwalkers, was over in minutes except for one group. There were five team members circling a nightwalker who had been injured but was strongly on his feet, turning around and around, facing the circle of nightwalkers surrounding him. He had on a red jacket.

  Alex went up to the office and sat down on his heels. He looked at her. “Come to me, Minty.”

  Total confusion on her face, Minty stared at him a long time. Alex entered her mind to read her thoughts. This is the beautiful man. Where is my Master, where is the knife I love?

  He held out the knife. “I am your Master, when you are in the dark or when I am in your mind. But when we are in the light, when others are around I am Alex, your lover. If you treat me as Alex your lover in the light, as your Master of the dark it won’t make the pain too deep, if you don’t handle the lover Alex in light, I and the knife will have to hurt you very much and very deep in the dark. We may have to hold you down and pound you. You don’t want that do you?”

  “Oh God no, please no.”

  “In the light I am Alex, your lover, correct?”

  “Yes, Master, yes, I can do as you tell me.”

  “Good, I will let you carry the knife that you love. Now come out and stand up. Call me Alex and kiss me.”

  She slowly slid out from under the table. He held out his hand and she didn’t hesitate. She took it and stood up. She looked up at his beautiful face. Reaching up with both hands she pulled his head down and placed her lips against his mouth. She opened hers, letting him take what he wanted, and he did.

  He finally pulled back and looked down at her. “Carry the knife.” He handed it to her. She looked at it and took it in shaking hands, pulled it against her chest. The knife had blood on it that left a stain on her blouse, but she pulled it tighter against her body. He put his hand on the back of her neck, guiding her out the door, then down the stairs.

  He went with her to the nightwalker in the red jacket.

  “Strip his jacket and shirt off.” His voice was low. It was obeyed immediately. The rogue was held and his clothes were literally
ripped from his frame. He looked around before he spoke.

  “You are the Council Lord. I didn’t mean to fight against the Council. We were told the fight was for other rights.”

  “Silence.” Alex was still using a low voice but he also entered the man’s mind. There were very few nightwalkers who could read minds, although most could influence mortals. But convincing a mortal to do something and reading their minds were two different levels.

  Alex knew that some of the very old nightwalkers developed the talent of mind reading and control, but it was limited. He had not heard of anyone, even Radames, being able to enter minds like he did. He kept this talent to himself. Only Rad knew about it.

  It had manifested with his dark side. He had been tortured almost to the death shade. The silver chains were all around him. The torture was not sexual, it was to get the old woman to feel something because she couldn’t. So she listened to him scream, cry, and curse for months. He slowly went insane. He went inside himself until one day he was inside her. He saw the pain inside of her. He took that, wrapped it up and twisted it. He allowed her to set him free. He allowed her to swallow her tongue.

  It was Rad who found him, crawling from the house, the burns and tears on his body—Rad who healed him, Rad who was aware of his ability to read because Rad used it, Rad who ignored his dark side, telling him between consenting adults, whatever. But even Rad didn’t know how deep he could go into minds, mortal or nightwalker.

  He held the neck of his female, looked at the chest of the male before him and he asked. “Is this the one who hit you?”

  She looked at the man, at the others falling in a ring around them. She finally looked up at the face of her lover. “Yes, Alex.”

  Alex looked down at her, seeing what they all saw—the deep bruise spreading in blue and yellow over one side of her lower jaw. He turned, let go of her, reached into his pocket and pulled out the silver stud. With slow movements he pushed it into the proper place in the chest of the rogue. The rogue breathed out and collapsed. As the team members let go, he slid down on the floor.

  “Rex, take a team to clean up, then leave. Give me one car as my female and I need to drive to New Orleans. She needs to meet a relative. But after you all leave, we have some business to take care of here.”

  Rex didn’t hesitate. He gave orders, the clothes were taken, the hard items were gathered, the team moved out. When everyone had left it was quiet in the large warehouse. He pulled her over in front of him and had her kneel facing the rogue stretched out on the floor.

  “Take the knife and plunge it in his stomach. Leave it there.”

  She looked up at him and took the knife. She put it point first above the man’s belt buckle, the pushed it down. The man screamed but couldn’t move. Blood came out around the knife, running down both sides.

  “The knife is so happy it will love you back in the dark.”

  She looked up at him. “What would you have me do, Master?”

  “Take the knife out and plunge it in somewhere else, anywhere, but not the heart.” He used his velvet voice. It echoed in the warehouse.

  She pulled up the knife, moved it up a couple of inches, hesitated. She moved it over closer to her, then plunged it in again. This time the scream went on longer, the voice getting hoarse as he tried to move, but the silver stud kept him weak.

  * * * *

  She heard her Master suck in a great breath. He was breathing in something, perhaps the pain the man was feeling. She hadn’t let go of the handle and she looked up and saw that her Master’s eyes were closed and his nostrils were flared. Watching him, she twisted the knife. The man’s voice was a weak moan and harsh rasp, but Alex’s face showed that he tasted something very fine.

  She hesitated then she pushed and drug the knife forward across the man’s soft muscles in his stomach, blood and intestines exposed, but she was watching Alex’s face. She heard the man on the floor start to plead, he was begging to be killed. Alex was eating something that tasted very good.

  Finally he looked down at her upturned face. “Thank you, now you can put the knife in his heart.”

  She looked down, pulled the knife out and raised it up. She stabbed down hard, knowing she had to penetrate the bones of the ribs. She flinched back as the man turned to dust. The pants deflated. A ring rolled across the floor. She still had the knife gripped in her hand.

  Alex reached down and pulled her up. “We need to get on the road. You need to meet someone that we think is a relative of yours.”

  She was walking along, holding the knife closely but she stopped. Suddenly it was daylight and she was with Alex. She wasn’t frightened of the dark.

  “What do you mean?” Her voice was steady, strong. She stood solid. He was several steps away before he stopped, turned in shock to look at her.

  “Minty.” There was a bit of warning in his voice.

  “Don’t Minty me. I have been through a whole shit load of changes. I have lived with my panic and dark forever. But I have also learned to live in the daylight, that means I am who I am. An orphan who had to find a way to take care of myself. I had to educate myself to go on in the world.”

  * * * *

  He looked at her and he had to smile. She had been through a shit load and here she was, a bloody knife in her hand, having dusted a nightwalker, her feet planted firmly. She stood, looking at a nightwalker who was almost twice her size, who, on one level she called Master, but on this level, he could tell she was really pissed.

  Fuck, he was so tied to this female. “There was another orphan, a female who was a baby, who was turned in at the same time you were. She believes you are related. She is the one who traced you. She sent me after you. Now if I don’t take you to meet her, she is in a position to make my life hell. Can we go?”

  “Not yet.” She took a deep breath. “Are you really a Vampire?”

  He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Can’t we answer all of this in the car? Yes, but we call ourselves nightwalkers. Now I will answer all of your questions in the car.” He did what no one would ever have expected him to do. He actually said. “Please.”

  At that she took a deep breath and stomped out past him. There was an Audi SUV sitting by the busted door. She went around the passenger side as he got in behind the wheel.

  “Where are we going?”

  Okay, she might be submissive to his dark side in the dark, but in the daylight she was assertive. Rad was going to enjoy this.

  “Rad has a home in New Orleans. He is a very special entity among us. His mate is the one that is probably related to you in some manner. I took her a sample of your blood. They are trying to check the DNA.”

  * * * *

  She belted up but slipped off her shoes, pulled up her feet sideways on the seat so that she was sitting facing him.

  “You took my blood to her without asking me?”

  “Minty, I don’t always have to ask you for things.”

  She looked at him for a long time. “You are so beautiful.”

  “Please don’t say that about me.

  She was surprised. “But you are.”

  He glanced over. “So are you.”

  “But I’m not a Vampire, right?”

  “To be truthful, we’re not sure what you are. Your blood has some serum that seems to be helpful to nightwalkers. Misty’s blood can actually cure us, she used it on me when I was injured. It gave me additional strength and talents. Because of these, Rad was able to push me into a seat on the Council. That is our ruling body. Rad should be on it but he has rejected that position for a very long time. He is one tough bastard, except when he is around Misty. She has him wrapped around a little pinky.”

  He smiled as he drove. She watched his regal profile, trying to take in everything she had learned over the last few days. She thought about the most important items. One, there were Vampires. Two, she had a lover. Three, she had a Master. Four, she had a relative. She found she didn’t want to count any higher, but just sit, rel
ax in the comfortable car and let her lover take her to her relative.

  She put her seat back a little more, discovering she was very tired. She could trust her lover. She laid her head down and slept.

  Chapter Seventeen

  She had no idea of the time on the road. Her lover was gentle. He stopped for gas, went in the bathrooms with her while she cleaned up, so she could use the facilities in safety. He provided her with food and drinks she could handle in the car. He found a store on the way to buy her some clothes. She was able to change, then he let her sleep again.

  They finally pulled into the wide driveway of the beautiful glass home. She looked up to see a lovely woman come out on the porch that was reached by the wide steps. She stumbled out and stretched her legs but Alex was there to help her. They walked up to the woman on the porch.

  “Hello, Minty, I am Misty. We are related, so neither you or I are alone in the world any longer.” She held out her arms and Minty went into them with a feeling that she had never thought to have.

  * * * *

  The two women sat for an hour together on the couch talking quietly. Rad and Alex stood by the bar in the corner sipping Rad’s excellent whiskey.

  “You know you are going to have to take her to Rome. We haven’t been able to identify who it was that spoke to her, so she needs to confront him. We need to trap him. We need you to stop this with one big slam. We need to lay out a plan that will surprise everyone. I’ll go with you and Minty, but I need to think how to play this out.”

  The two of them looked over at the females by the fire.