Reluctant Storm

by P. A. Warren

  “Who’s Claire?” she asks.

  “You are!” I exclaim.

  “Not you,” Mikail says looking pointedly at Anya.

  Arching my eyebrow at Mikail, I ask, “What do you mean, it’s not her?”

  “You’re about as smart as I thought you were,” he says sarcastically. “Number one, Claire couldn’t have gotten away that fast. Number two, Claire has brown hair, not blonde. When would she have had time to dye it? And finally number three, you’re an idiot.”

  This Claire look-alike is shaking her pretty blonde head along with what Mikail says. “My name is Anya; I’ve never even met a Claire.”

  I’m stunned speechless. She’s a spitting image of Claire, a little meaner and with different hair perhaps, but she could still she pass as her. I lean towards Mikail, still staring at Anya, and whisper, “She does look exactly like Claire, doesn’t she?”

  He nods and slips his sunglasses up onto his head. “I’m thinking Claire might have a sister she doesn’t know about, that no one knows about, actually,” he says, rubbing his shaved head and looking over at her again, seeming putting off by this doppelganger.

  I turn my head towards the sound of tapping shoes that are steadily walking towards us. I gaze up and away from Anya and find myself staring straight into the eyes of the man who kidnapped me and ordered me to keep Claire safe, Antony; The King. I swallow my fear of him and look him in the eye, waiting for him to say something to the man that didn’t protect his daughter.

  “Nice of you to stop by, Jason,” he says in his always superior tone. “But there was no need,” he says, pausing and looking over and smiling slightly at the Anya, the Claire lookalike.

  “What? You didn’t think I’d lay all my eggs in one basket, did you? Claire may be the rightful heir, but with her out of the picture Anya can take her place, and the vampire world can have a pure heir. Claire isn’t worth the trouble, but putting you as her bodyguard fooled Griffin into thinking she was special to me and worthy to be next in line. So essentially your job is done. Even though you failed, you really succeeded in doing me a favor by letting her be captured.”

  This man in front of me is delusional and is about on the same level of madness as my estranged father. Looking over at Mikail, his jaw clenched, fists in tight balls, I step in front of him. The anger I feel towards this man who kidnapped me and forced me to do the only job I’ve ever failed at, who used his daughter as a pawn in his fucked up power trip. My anger gets the better of me, because the next thing I know my fists are flying at his face, pleasure filling my body as each one connects with his nose, causing blood to spurt into my face. I land punch after punch to his face until I’m pulled off from behind. I instantly go to attack that person when I realize its Mikail, and he’s pulling me towards the entrance and out the door. I stumble and grab the wall, stopping Mikail from going further as I watch Anya kneeling next to Antony. I don’t know why but I grab the knife in my pocket and stab Mikail in the stomach and run back into the house without a second thought. I grab Anya and throw her over my shoulder and speed back to the car, leaving Mikail standing there holding a bloody knife and looking down at his torn shirt and then back at me.

  “That was my favorite shirt. You should not have done that,” he looks unamused and then he realizes I’m carrying Anya and his mouth drops...

  “Dude, what the hell are you thinking?” he yells at me.

  “Give me a hand with the trunk,” I say, evading Anya’s hands as she’s trying to punch me while hanging upside down. I flip her forward and snap her neck so she’ll stop as I throw her in the trunk without delay. Mikail looks at me grimly, shaking his head as we jump in the car right as the guards come running out, weapons at the ready. Mikail guns the engine and squeals the tires, leaving black strips on the cement as we peel out and reach the closed gate. Mikail is fully concentrating on driving, and I don’t like the look in his eyes so I grip the ‘oh shit bar’ as Mikail presses down on the gas pedal. We go flying through the gate, leaving a mess and a cloud of smoke in our retreating path. Turning up the radio, I let the bass pump through the speakers and spread through the car, letting the high of the chase take over.

  Mikail leans over and turns the music off, gazing at me incredulously. “Dude, you’re an idiot. So now that you have her, what exactly do you plan to do with her?”

  That’s a good question. I look out the window and know what I have to do. I have to go somewhere I haven’t been in many years. “I have to take her home, to exchange her for Claire.”

  Arching his eyebrow, he looks back at the road, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel before he starts talking. “Let me ask you something, why are you doing all this for one girl? I mean she’s pretty, but there are millions of prettier girls out there, and you could have any one of them.”

  I close my eyes and stare straight ahead and lie. “It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the fact that I failed and I. Do. Not. Fail.”

  He nods as if he actually understands what I’m talking about. “You’re lucky I know what you mean. I happen to have some acquaintances that have a cabin a few hours from here that are letting us use it for as long as we need to. It’s a safe place and off the radar.”

  I nod and lean down and open the cooler, pulling out two bags of blood and handing one to Mikail. I tear the other open with my teeth, draining it within seconds. I roll down the window and hang my hand out, letting the cool wind hit is as the night around us turns dark.

  “By the way,” I say with a smirk, “sorry about stabbing you.”

  Chapter 17

  Claire

  I hate the smothering darkness. It's making me claustrophobic as it continues to obstruct my view. I can't see anything, anywhere. In any direction. I drop my head and close my eyes, trying to sleep. It's an unsuccessful attempt. My arms are still attached to the wall, making it almost impossible to sleep.

  Turning my head, I zero in on a faint dripping sound. I yearn for a drink, licking my dry lips. Pulling my hand up, the chains give enough so I can touch my cracked gums. Licking them to relieve some of the cracking is useless. I need water, desperately.

  I lean back and try and ignore the pain in my stomach. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been here and haven’t eaten anything in days.

  I lean my head back when a memory I had managed to hide away for years dings in my head, shutting my eyes I’m transported back to my senior year of high school.

  I was walking home from school when a group of boys rushed towards me. They grabbed my arms and legs and carried me kicking and screaming towards an old building. They shoved me carelessly into an old shed and locked it from the outside.

  It felt like I was there for hours but in reality it was more like thirty minutes. I huddled in a corner when the door opened with a bang, as I heard the sound of footsteps coming closer to me. The person gently lifted me into their arms and told me to close my eyes as they carried me out. I could tell a man was carrying me. I felt his hard muscles clench underneath my hands as I held onto him. All I wanted was to open my eyes but it was as if something was weighing them down. I felt sunshine on my skin as he carried me out of the shed. The following day I heard from other classmates gossiping that the group of boys that did it were beaten up so bad they ended up in the hospital. No one ever found out who beat those boys up.

  Something running over my foot brings me back into my new terrifying reality of being held prisoner. Shivering, I kick my legs around in hopes that whatever furry creature ran over me is gone. I settle down thinking about that random memory and to this day I never understand why I was the senior class prank. I always wondered who the savior was that let me out of the shed.

  The door slamming open breaks the monotony of my dreary thoughts. A large daunting figure walks in flipping the switch turning on the bright light overhead, causing them to tear up. I bring my hands up to my eyes, covering them. I wish he would turn the lights off, the light burns my eyes. The irony of that th
ought isn’t lost on me.

  As the man moves closer to me I remove my hands from my eyes peering at him, squinting. He has scars all on his face and he’s wearing an eye patch on his left eye. His head is completely bald, covered in a skull tattoo that’s grinning at me. When he looks down, my stomach drops when I notice he wears the uniform of a guard.

  “I’ve been told not to come in here,” he says leering at me, his eyes on my chest, making me shiver in disgust. The way he looks at me leaves me feeling completely naked.

  “I’ve never been told I’m not allowed in a room before. The boss usually lets me have some fun with the prisoners in here,” he says, grinning.

  Cringing as he smiles down at me, displaying a huge gap in his teeth. The stench of his breath flows towards me making me gag.

  “It makes me wonder what you have the others don’t, and while the master’s away I’m going to play with you. It’s time I find out what’s so special about you.”

  Kneeling in front of me, he moves a piece of my hair behind my ear and does the same to the other side. His hot rancid breath brushes against my cheek. I hold my breath, trying not to breathe it in. Quivering in fear, I lean as far away from him as the chains will allow. Curling into myself, I try to make myself as small as possible. My gut instinct is to run and not being able to sends my mind into panic mode with what could possibly happen. I have absolutely no control over anything that happens when I’m chained up like this.

  Without any warning he grabs my hair and pulls my head back leaving my throat vulnerable. He licks my neck from my collarbone to my ear. Pulling away I gasp, shuddering in utter revulsion as he pulls back smiling. I let him see the disgust in my eyes, taunting him as I do it. The next thing I know my face is stinging from the slap of his hand. Laughing as tears stain my face, he lifts his hand and slaps me again, this time harder, causing my tooth to connect to my cheek ripping it open. The metallic taste of blood fills my mouth.

  “What is it that makes you so special?” he asks with his hand on his chin staring, with a look that terrifies me, tears I’ve tried so hard to hold back run down my chin. With his boot he nudges my legs apart and tells me to get into a kneeling position. I shake my head no, and he grabs my upper arm and lifts me to my knees, ordering me to stay there.

  “Are you one of them?” he whispers softly, pulling out a very sharp knife that glints in the light. He caresses it between his fingers as he walks in a circle around me. Fear leaves me unsteady and I lose my balance, falling to the floor. Growling, he pulls me up by the hair and puts me back on my knees. Using the knife, he rips the back of my shirt open, splitting it half.

  “Now for the real test, don’t make a sound,” he starts laughing manically.

  I feel the coldness of the knife rubbing my back and all of a sudden, I feel the tip of the knife cut into my skin making patterns, crying out in pain as the knife digs deeper. I feel blood dripping down my back soaking into my pants. The pain is so great that I’ve bitten through my lip as I try not to scream. His laughter echoes off the walls of the room, the entire time he’s using his knife to carve into my back.

  He stops for a minute and walks in front of me holding the bloody knife. He puts the knife, to my lips, covering them with blood. Setting his hand on my back, I can feel him rubbing his hands in blood, spreading it around. He brings his hand to my face, smearing blood onto my cheeks. I’m past the point of being able to react to him, so I sit there and take it, which makes him angrier. Raising his arm, he repeatedly hits my face, and just when I think he’s done, he starts kicking me. I can no longer hold back my screams; they burst out of me like a freight train, as he kicks every inch of my body. Why won’t he stop kicking me?

  Lying there in a pool of my own blood I have an out of body experience, almost as if I’m watching him kick me. I feel my body jerk every time he kicks me, gathering one last plea I beg him to stop my voice hoarse from screaming.

  “Stop!” I plead, groaning hoarsely. I make an attempt to cover my stomach, but the chains prevent me, holding my hands in place. “Stop!” I beg one last time. Bringing my terror to an entirely new level, and I feel my hold on sanity hanging on by a mere thread.

  He goes to kick me again, grabbing at my pants forcing them down. There is nothing I can physically do to stop him; the chains refuse to give way. The adrenaline that’s moving through my body has me flailing my legs trying to stop him, but his weight is pressing down against me. Unable to even kick, I stop trying. The door slams open and he’s pulled off of me. Taking a deep breath after he’s pulled off me, I roll over just in time to see him slammed into a wall with a crash.

  “I said no one was to come in here!” Riley yells at the guard.

  My body shudders in relief that Riley’s here now, which is ironic. I lie there shaking, waiting for Riley to finish the job the guard started.

  Shutting my eyes, wincing as I listen to the sounds of fists hitting flesh and the guard’s screaming, the sounds filling the small space are horrifying. I bring my fist up to my mouth, covering it to keep the screams at bay.

  Vaguely hearing the sound of more footsteps coming closer, I clench my jaw trying to stop the shaking and end up biting my already hurt lip again, drawing more blood. The person bends down towards me, lifting my tangled hair away from my face. Terror fills me when I see it’s the elegant man from earlier. The one who has dark hair and pasty white skin; he’s the one who dunked me in water trying to drown me. Looking into his eyes I avert my gaze quickly as I see the lust that fills them. Leaning back on his feet he smiles and takes his finger, putting it on my chin and wipes the blood that’s slowly dripping down my chin and gracefully puts his finger in his mouth closing his eyes in utter bliss.

  “You taste wonderful, Claire, simply wonderful.” Cocking his head to the left he takes in everything about me disdainfully. “Do you have any idea who or what I am?”

  Placing his cold hands gently on each side of my face he stares into my eyes coldly. “I’m Griffin and I am the leader of the Western Clan. I’m also a vampire.” My eyes close slowly and I reopen them in disbelief.

  “Yes, sweet Claire, take it all in...I am the world’s most deadly predator and you are the most glorious prey around. Your daddy must not be too concerned about you as I haven’t heard anything from the King.”

  This is just way too much to take in right now. What does this all mean? Before I can summon up the courage to ask him this I notice he’s looking very intently at my profile. Turning my head, I scan his face as his eyes become fully black. Wincing, not understanding why, but knowing I can’t keep looking at his eyes, I avert my gaze which seems to please him.

  “Gets me every single time,” he says laughing. “The fact you can’t be compelled is so very thrilling for me; you have absolutely no idea how much so.”

  Smoothing my now greasy brown hair, he runs his cold spindly fingers through it. He stares over at Riley who has now lifted the guard to his feet and has his face pressed into his neck. I am stunned at what I’m seeing. Is he biting him? Despite this, my eyes are fixed on the sinewy muscles that hold the guard trapped against the wall. When Riley’s face comes into view again, his lips and chin are covered in blood. I put my hands over my ears to drown out the inhuman sounds coming from the guard and look towards the man that’s now standing next to me staring at the two of them against the wall.

  “Riley! That’s enough!” Griffin barks out. “He’s still a good guard and I don’t want to waste all the training we did on him.”

  Riley reluctantly pulls away and lets him fall in a heap to the floor, gazing towards me breathing heavily with his mouth covered in blood and his clothes disheveled. “He’s so good that he tries to rape a prisoner you want kept alive? Sounds like a great guard,” he says sarcastically. Catching my gaze, he stares at me as if waiting for me to condemn him. Wincing, I look away disgusted by the blood, but not knowing how to take this all in. The only people I know who drink blood are fictional characters and Riley is no
Edward Cullen.

  Griffin glares at Riley with a stare that would probably kill a lesser man. “Do you want to tell me what was going on that you had to attack the guard?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “Meet me in my office once you’ve cleaned this mess up,” he orders, looking at the guard in disgust. I lift my head and staring at Griffin. “Why don’t you go ahead and kill me?” I utter, wishing for the pain to stop.

  Griffin tilts his head and the room is suddenly filled with his thunderous laughter. “Kill you? Now, where’s the fun in that?” I watch in agony as Griffin leaves the room. My eyes follow Riley as he walks out the door and brings in another guard to drag out the one he almost killed. I can still hear Griffin’s amused laughter from down the hall.

  Chapter 18

  Mikail

  I finally reach the house and shut the car off for a minute. I just sit here and let the sound of the woods wash over me, ignoring Jason as he steps out of the car. When I do step out, I slam the door shut and open the trunk. I stared down at the girl that looks so similar to Claire, whispering out a spell that will continue to make her sleep for a while longer. I turn toward the house and push the door open. I glance around before walking over to the light switch and flipping it on, only nothing happens.

  “Powers out,” Jason tells me as if I was an idiot and couldn’t figure that out myself.

  “Yeah, no one’s been here for a while.” I let out an oomph as I bump into something, grabbing my knee with a groan.

  “So, what should we do with the girl? Leave her out there or bring her in?” Jason asks.

  “You’re the one who kidnapped her, you deal with her. I checked on her before coming and she was sleeping. I’m sure she’ll sleep for a bit longer.” My inner self is grinning with the things I could do to him that he has absolutely no idea about. I don’t let him know I put a spell on her. He can’t know I have any type of powers. That would open up a can of worms, and Jason’s already a pain in the ass.