by V. A. Dold
Logan and Quin stepped out of the living room where they had been watching the news. “Do you want us to come with you?” Logan asked.
Darius gripped Logan’s shoulder. “Thank you for the offer, but no. What I would like you to do is remain here and guard the women. Even though our wards should prevent the Guild from entering the estate, I would feel better if the women weren’t left unprotected.”
Logan gave Darius a nod. “Get a piece of them for us,” he growled, his wolf rising in his voice. “Any bastard that targets women needs to be put down hard.”
“We’ll do that.”
*****
Etienne watched as his deceased wife materialized before him. “Hello, Amalia. To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you again so soon?”
“Etienne, my love, we need to talk. I have received important news that pertains to you.”
His fingers itched to touch her cheek, but he’d learned long ago that his hand would simply pass through her ghostly form, so he held them tightly in his lap. “And that is?”
“It is time to move on. Your new love awaits you in New Orleans. You have pined for me far too long. It isn’t healthy. Besides, my time has come to go to the light and prepare to be reborn into another life. I will always love you, Etienne. But I need to let this existence, such as it is, go.”
“I know you are right, but I don’t have to like it. That being said, I love you too much to hold you here against your will. You will always hold a piece of my heart as my first love. My only regret in letting you go is I cannot hold you one last time before you are gone forever.”
“There you are wrong.” A heartbeat later she stood before him a solid as she had been in life. “As my final request before I leave you, I was granted a few minutes in my corporeal body.”
Etienne leapt from his chair and pulled her into his arms. He wasted no time with speech. Instead, his lips crashed down in a desperate kiss. She opened to him on a sigh, and he swept in. It had been so long since he’d held the woman who had taken his heart with her to the grave. She tasted a sweet as he remembered, like a ripe blueberry. A groan ripped from his throat when she moved her pelvis against him. Then much too quickly he held nothing but air.
“God damn it!” he bellowed.
“I feel the same. I would have preferred to make love to you one last time, but I was only permitted those few moments. Most aren’t granted even that much. I beg you to not deny your feelings when the woman destined for you enters your life. You mustn’t dwell in the past any longer. I am sorry, but my time is up, and I must go.”
“I love you, Amalia. Have a wonderful long life when you are reborn. You didn’t deserve to die with the bloom of youth still upon your cheeks.”
“I will do my best. Take care, my love.”
Tears rolled down his face as he watched her raise a hand in farewell and walked into the light.
*****
Minutes later the men were in the SUV and headed to town. Their first stop was the hotel to collect Etienne who had remained in town in case the Guild returned to the hotel.
“Good evening gentlemen,” he greeted as he took a seat in the vehicle.
“Good evening, Etienne,” Nick answered for the lot of them. “Did any of the members double back to the hotel?”
“Apparently, they did, but I did not see them. Each of the rooms the women had stayed in was marked with symbols and ransacked.”
Darius studied Etienne’s face closely. There was sadness in his eyes and heartbreak in his tone. “What happened that you’re not telling us?”
“Amalia paid me a visit to say goodbye. She has made it clear that I need to find love again and has chosen to go into the light.”
Derick who was beside Etienne placed his hand on Etienne’s arm and squeezed. “I’m sorry. I know she was your world and you’ll miss her.”
“I will. But she is right. It is time I moved on and found a flesh and blood woman to share my life. I wish to speak no more of it. We have work to do.”
Silence lay like a heavy shroud over the men. No one knew what to say given the circumstances. They were all finding their Muierimei’s while Etienne was saying his final goodbye to his.
Nick drove while Darius, Derick, Etienne, and the local vampires, Rafe and Sean, watched for the president and members of the Guild.
Rafe kept his eye on the passing humanity as he stated, “Your Majesty, Sean and I would like to request a transfer to New Orleans.”
“Rafe, how many times do I have to tell you not to address me in such a way?”
Rafe chuckled. “Apparently, at least once more.”
Etienne sighed. “Fine. Why are you requesting the transfer?”
“The witch Stacy is my Muierimei. I’m sure she will join the others in New Orleans to create their coven. I need to be in the same city so I can court her.”
“I have found my Muierimei among the witches as well,” Sean added. “Tara is mine. She is also leaning toward relocating to New Orleans. I sensed it when they spoke about moving to your city.”
Etienne nodded to each man. “You both have my blessing and congratulations. I will be pleased to have you in New Orleans.”
“Stop here!” Darius hissed.
Nicked yanked the wheel to the right and slammed on the brakes.
Darius tracked his target waiting for his chance to launch from the vehicle. The instant Nick hit the brakes his door flew open, and he was on the run. Footsteps pounded behind him as the others followed. The Guild member glanced over his shoulder and took off. Darius swore under his breath, frustrated that he had to deny his vampiric speed and appear human in public. His prey shot down an alley with Darius hot on his heels. The instant they were out of the public eye, he pulled one of his blades and let it fly. The lethal weapon lodged into the member’s spine. The man dropped to the filthy cement with a shriek of pain. Darius slowed to a predatory stalk and snarled over his shoulder to the others, “No one kills him until he is questioned.”
The member tried to wiggle away from Darius, but the knife had severed his spinal cord. “I didn’t do anything man,” he pleaded.
“Sure you did. I saw you at the graveyard. I have one question for you. If you answer correctly, I’ll kill you quickly. If not, I’ll turn you over to them,” he jerked his head to indicate the other vampires, “for a bit of fun. Where is your president?”
“I don’t know, man. I got separated from the rest of the group. I’ve been searching for hours and haven’t found anyone. That’s the truth!”
Darius heard the ring of honesty in the man’s words. “Thank you,” he said as he gripped the man’s head and wrenched it to the side. A snap echoed off the walls of the alley as the man went limp in death.
Etienne sighed. “He was a wealth of information. All right, boys, we have work to do. Spread out and search the city. If you find any other survivors let me know. Regardless of what we find, return to the SUV in three hours.”
The men piled into the vehicle taking the same seats that they had vacated three hours earlier. Unhappy expressions darkened their faces. They had canvased the entire city and hadn’t located any other members.
Etienne put a voice to what every man was thinking. “We are wasting our time here. The Guild must have turned tail and run to regroup. It is time we go home.”
*****
The next morning, Carolyn woke wrapped in Darius’s arms. Happiness filled her heart. She was going to wake up to this wonderful man for eternity. She took a breath and inhaled Darius’s unique scent. A smile pulled at her lips as her eyes blinked open to gaze upon Darius’s sweet face.
“I love you, leannan,” he whispered and then gave her a soft, good morning kiss. “How do you feel this morning?”
“Incredible. My dislocated shoulder is back in place, and except for the horrific memories that will give me nightmares for decades to come, I wouldn’t know I had been sliced and burned. By the way, how did it go last night? Did you get the bastards?”
>
Darius grumbled a curse under his breath. “No. It didn’t go as well as I had hoped. The president and all but one of the members got away.”
Carolyn propped herself up on her forearms and looked down at him. “So, what does that mean for us witches?”
He shrugged. “Nothing has changed. We’ll keep all of you safe and continue to hunt them down.” He rolled out of bed and headed for the bathroom. “Let’s get dressed and rustle up some breakfast. We have a long drive ahead of us.”
“Okay.”
He gave her a hot look and winked. “I like your hair.”
Carolyn leapt from the bed and ran to the mirror. She squealed with joy when she saw her reflection. Gorgeous blonde hair fell in soft curls half way down her back. Not as long as before but thicker by a long shot, and the shiny, soft texture was something she hadn’t been able to achieve with salon products no matter how hard she had tried. “Thank God I don’t have a mullet. I can live with this. No problem.”
When they entered the kitchen, they found the room empty and a note on the counter. Darius scooped it up and read it aloud.
Good morning,
I hope you slept well.
We have headed home.
Drive safely, and we’ll see you in New Orleans. All of us! That’s right, all seven of us have decided to live in New Orleans. I can’t wait to start our coven.
Love,
Jacqueline
He arched an eyebrow at her and grabbed two coffee mugs. “It looks like it’s breakfast for two.”
Carolyn’s pupils dilated. “Let’s not all bad. It means I get you all to myself…” her voice trailed off and her eyes became blank.
Darius rushed to her side, afraid she would fall during her vision.
Her breasts rose and fell with her sharp, labored breaths. Several long minutes passed before the light returned to her eyes.
Terror raced across her face, and she gripped his arm hard. “The Guild is on their way to New Orleans.”
The End
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Thank you!
V.A. Dold
Continue reading for a couple chapters from
Etienne.
ETIENNE
Book Two
League of Guardians Series
Romance with BITE
CHAPTER ONE
Teresa Andersen and her three friends, Helen Jones, Karen Hall, and Willamina “Billie or BJ” Witt, strolled along Decatur Street. Four best friends, new to New Orleans and the French Quarter. Like many of the freshmen at Tulane University, they were eager to check out the nightlife.
BJ along with Karen trailed behind Teresa and Helen. The sidewalk was congested to the point that the girls had to work their way through the crowd single file rather than side by side.
Out of nowhere, the sensation of ice-cold water ran down Billie’s spine. Someone watched her. Trying to look natural, she touched Karen’s arm to get her attention. She didn’t want to alert their watcher to the fact she knew he was there.
“What?” Karen asked as she turned. The instant Karen saw BJ’s expression she stiffened. By the look on her friend’s face, BJ ‘felt’ something and odds were good, it was of the trouble variety. History had proven that triggering BJ’s spidey sense never ended well.
For as long as Karen could remember, Billie had possessed an innate ability to sense things. BJ’s strange spidey sense freaked her out until she learned to trust her friend’s instincts.
“I’m not sure. I think we’re being watched. Why would we be singled out in a crowd as large as this?”
Karen turned her attention to the people surrounding them, trying to see what her friend sensed. Out of the corner of her eye, movement at odds with the crowd caught her attention. A well-dressed man, someone no one would suspect, rushed toward them. Alarm held Karen frozen in place. His scrutiny was just a bit too focused, and it creeped her out. The man shouldered his way through the last few people between himself and Billie. The way Mr. Creepy fixated on her friend’s purse exceeded extreme, to say the least. Before Karen could yell a warning, he tried to yank the purse from BJ’s shoulder.
The force of her assailant's attack threw her to the sidewalk. Out of sheer instinct, BJ managed to hang onto the strap with one hand. The uneven sidewalk scraped and bloodied her knees. The hem of her skirt tore. Still, she held on. No way was the bastard getting her favorite purse.
Mr. Creepy backhanded her hard and yanked again. “Give me the purse, bitch, or I’ll cut you.”
As his free hand went for his back pocket, Karen jumped on his back and pummeled him with everything she had. She might as well have been a flea for all Mr. Creepy noticed.
What felt like an eternity lasted mere seconds. Funny how time stretched when you were in danger. Just as BJ’s fingers began to slip, a tall, wide-shouldered man leapt from the doorway where she’d fallen.
The stranger jerked the mugger away from the women. There was intensity, like a flame blazing in his eyes, that wasn't quite normal as he put himself between her and the mugger. The man looked as if he could undoubtedly kill her attacker and not think twice about it. Somehow, she knew he wouldn’t unless provoked.
Billie slumped wearily and watched in astonishment as her hero fought her attacker with skills gained only through a crap-load of experience. A blade flashed in the waning sunlight but never had the chance to gain purchase. Her hero captured the mugger’s wrist and squeezed until he cried like a little girl and dropped it to the sidewalk. Then he slammed the man back so hard, the attacker bounced when he hit the brick exterior of the restaurant before sliding in a heap at his feet.
The wail of sirens cut through the excited, frantic voices that blended into a single incoherent din.
BJ gratefully accepted Karen’s outstretched hand. Her shaky legs wouldn’t get her upright without assistance. She noticed Karen eyeing the mugger and her hero as she helped her to her feet. Once upright, she brushed the dirt and filth from the sidewalk off her clothing.
The man who had saved them, turned slightly, only enough to address them but still able to keep his attention on the mugger.
“Have any of you ladies been harmed?”
“No. I don’t think so,” Billie answered in a shaky voice. “A little scraped and bruised, but nothing life threatening.”
Teresa and Helen broke through the crowd frantic to get to their friends.
“Oh my God! Are you okay?” Teresa cried, examining BJ as thoroughly as any doctor would.
Helen’s focus jumped from BJ to the men against the wall, and her eyes narrowed menacingly.
Karen sensed Helen’s intention in time to grab her arm, and in a quiet voice, she warned, “Don’t do it. The police will be here any second. This isn’t the time for a brawl. Come on, Helen, let it go.”
Typically Helen had an even temper. In actuality, she was a timid, empathetic person. So much so, her parents sent her to a martial arts school to gain confidence. Years of training in the dojo instilled some badly needed confidence and also taught her how to fight. She also learned never to use her training to initiate an attack. But defense of self or loved ones? Oh yeah, that was allowed. Threaten her friends or family and kiss your ass goodbye.
There were more than a few boys back home who could tell tales that would curl your hair. The idiots were constantly harassing one of Helen’s friends to egg her on, sure that once they got her to fight, they would be able to take her and claim bragging rights. Helen didn’t lose. Ever.
Richie caught Teresa’s eye. “Why don’t you ladies go inside and take a seat at the bar, I’ll join you in a minute. The police will want a report, and in my opinion, you would enjoy a stiff drink more than an interrogation.”
“Good idea. Let’s wait inside, and see if we can
get your knees taken care of.” She studied BJ’s knees again like she was ready to do major surgery. Sometimes Teresa took her desire to be a general practitioner a bit too far.
“Yeah, okay.” Relieved beyond words, she followed her friends toward the door. She wanted to thank her hero, but she had the feeling he wanted her out of sight, so her gratitude would have to wait.
One last glance at her attacker revealed her hero’s rage darkened eyes. His gaze was fixed on her torn skirt and bloodied knees. Billie watched as his grip tightened on the mugger’s throat. The last thing she heard as she disappeared into the cool interior of the restaurant was gurgles and sputtering.
The instant she took a seated at the bar, Teresa launched into doctor mode. She ordered the wait staff around like she owned the place. In seconds, she had them rushing to get soap, water, and a clean cloth. Billie had to hand it to her friend; she knew how to take charge of a situation.
About five minutes later, the crowd dispersed. The police cars pulled away with the mugger in the back seat, and her hero sauntered through the door as if nothing happened.
He gave her a small smile as he walked around the end of the bar and tucked a bottle opener into his back pocket. “Are you all right, cher?” he asked as he reached across the bar to shake each of their hands. “I’m Richie.” One by one the ladies introduced themselves.
Richie turned his attention back to Billie and waited for her response to his question. He was concerned she may be more injured than she was letting on.
“It all happened so fast. One second we were walking down the sidewalk, and then suddenly I was yanked off balance by my purse strap. Thank God you came when you did. The asshole had a knife. He could have hurt someone.”
