I kicked him in the ribs as hard as I could, and was satisfied to hear a rib or two snap. He clutched his side, and I rolled him over, before bringing my knee down on his throat. I applied pressure, and he started to choke. The bleeding in his ear had stopped, probably because the wound had already healed, and he could focus all of his energy on removing my knee from his throat.
He only used one hand though. I didn’t see what his other hand was doing until it was too late. His hands tightened over the handle of the knife, and he slashed up at my face. A white-hot pain flared across my chest, and I stumbled back, releasing the stranger on the ground.
He jumped to his feet, and I didn’t have time to check the wound on my chest. Judging by the amount of blood seeping into my shirt and down my sides, it had to have been bad. Already the blood caused my shirt to cling to my body, and I worried about it slowing me down.
He slashed again, and I ducked my head down, narrowly avoiding getting my throat cut. Someone roared, and I heard Quinten grunt. I glanced over quickly, and saw Quinten, who was sitting on his attacker’s legs, and was raining blows down on his face. Quinten’s face was empty of any emotion; he was just doing whatever it took to survive.
An arm wrapped tightly around my throat, and a voice hissed in my ear, “Gotcha now bitch.”
I brought my elbow back into his gut, and he grunted in pain. Then I slammed my elbow up into his face, breaking his nose. I stomped on his foot, and kneed him in the groin. He fell to his knees, panting heavily. I punched him in the face and he fell to his back, even though my punch hadn’t been that powerful.
I was losing steam, and quickly, too. The cut along my chest was obviously bad, and I needed to be able to take care of it. That wasn’t going to happen if the strange werewolf didn’t stay down and let me and Quinten get away.
He got shakily to his feet, and Quinten launched himself at the stranger, knocking him back to the ground. He cracked the werewolf’s head down onto the ground six times, until he stopped moving completely. For a second, I was afraid that Quinten had killed him, until he slowly started to breathe again.
Quinten pulled the top of my shirt away and swore. I looked down, and gasped. There was a long, deep cut across my chest, starting just below my neck and heading down between my breasts, stopping just above my navel. The cut was massive, and it was still bleeding.
It was trying to heal, but couldn’t keep up. My body had already lost a lot of blood and, as I stared at the bleeding wound, I started to sway dangerously. Quinten caught me, picked me up, and cradled me against his chest. “Alanna? Stay awake, please.”
“Come with me. I can help you.”
I lifted my eyes to an open alleyway, where a strange woman stood. She was of medium height and she looked to be about forty-five years old, with long, wavy, midnight brown hair. Her eyes were wild, crazy, and an even deeper brown color.
From my place in Quinten’s arms, I could feel his entire body tense up. He couldn’t fight with me in his arms, but he wasn’t willing to drop me to do it. He didn’t know what to do, so he just stood there, staring at this strange woman.
She cocked her head to the side, looking even crazier than she already did. “If you don’t come with me now, she’s going to pass out from blood loss, and you’ll be susceptible to another attack. I can offer you a safe place to stay and recuperate.”
Quinten hesitated. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“How do you know you can’t?” she asked with a cackle.
“Is that supposed to be funny?” Quinten demanded. “Because it’s not!”
“Relax, Loverboy. Follow me, or the two of you are going to end up in hot water.”
She turned and disappeared into the alley, faster than my eyes could see, but that didn’t mean much. My eyes were growing heavy, and my sight was getting hazy around the edges. I was fading fast, and it wouldn’t be long until I was unconscious.
Quinten sighed, shifted me in his arms, and whispered, “Everything’s going to be alright, Alanna. I promise.”
He sprinted into the alley after the mysterious woman, seeing her as his only option to keep me safe. I wasn’t sure what would happen next, but it had to be better than waiting around for our attackers to wake up and heal.
*****
When my eyes first opened, I was confused about where I was. The room was small, with beige walls and dark wood trim. The bed was comfortable and small, just large enough for me and Quinten, who was lying on his side next to me. One arm was draped over my waist, and he was breathing deeply beside me.
I tried to sit up, and he was awake in an instant. “Don’t move.”
I froze. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong is that you lost almost three whole pints of blood yesterday. You’re in no shape to be moving around right now.”
“Yes, she is.”
The woman from the alley was standing in the doorway, looking as deranged, exotic, and mysterious as she was yesterday. I thought I had imagined it because of the blood loss, but she was actually wearing a full body suit made of leather. She looked like an assassin from some cheesy action movie, and I wondered for a second if she planned to kill us.
Quinten didn’t look worried though, and that relaxed me a bit. Even if she dressed like a crazy lady, Quinten clearly didn’t have a problem with her being in the same room as us, and I trusted his judgment. If he didn’t react to her as a threat, it meant I didn’t need to either.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, taking a few steps into the room. “Your mate is right; you lost almost three pints of blood from that wound. But you should be good to get up and look around a little, if you want.”
She turned around and left, and Quinten sighed. “Come on, let’s get up. I’ll show you around a little bit.”
“Where are we?”
“With Violet. She’s two hundred and thirty-seven years old, and she’s been hunting vampires for almost eighty of those years. That’s what’s with the crazy getup she’s wearing. There’s something else about her though, something that made me trust her.”
“What is it?”
“For almost fifteen years, she was the lover of a werewolf. He was hunted down and killed for his involvement with her, by our mutual friend Roger Mason.”
“We’re not the first ones?” I asked, awed. “Roger killed a werewolf before just because he loved a vampire? Oh, Quinten!”
He pulled me close and murmured in my hair, “Don’t worry about it right now. Just focus on getting better. Violet assured me that we’re safe here, and I believe her. She’s been a vicious hunter for a while, and nobody’s smart enough to come within at least a block of her place.”
“How long can we stay here?”
“She says for as long as we need to. I’m thinking at least a few days. She even offered to help me train, so I can do a better job of protecting the two of us. I’m starting tomorrow. Violet says you’re more than welcome to join us, if you’re feeling up to it.”
I nodded. “We’ll see. My muscles are a little sore, and I’ve got a killer headache. I think that might clear up with some food. Of course, we’re in the home of a vampire, so she might not have anything for me to eat other than red meat.”
“She does. I told her what you liked, and she went to the store and bought some basic stuff; she says you can help yourself.”
I slid my legs over the edge of the bed, wincing in pain as I did, and stretched my back until it cracked. Then I got to my feet, surprised to find myself in nothing more than my jeans and bra. “Where’s my shirt?”
“Soaked in blood, ruined, and in the garbage. Violet left you a pile of clean clothes to wear. It’s not much, but it’ll do for now. I had to leave one of our bags in the alley, and when I went back for it, it was already gone. But thankfully I still have the envelope with the money.”
There was a pile of fresh, clean clothes on a chair in the corner, and I sifted through it. Quinten watched me undress, and I tried not t
o feel awkward about it. We were mates, and we’d been together three times already, but it still felt odd, knowing that he could see and appreciate my body. As I slipped on a pair of old jeans and a black tank top, I turned around to look at him, and found him smiling.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You’re so damn beautiful.”
I could feel my cheeks burning, and I hoped he didn’t notice. He chuckled though, and I swore under my breath. He outright laughed at that, and got up from the bed. He pulled me close, nuzzling his face into the side of my neck. He inhaled deeply, and I shivered in his arms. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He smiled. “I know. I knew it long before you did.” My stomach grumbled at me. “Come on; let’s get you something to eat. You’ve gotta be starving by now.”
I nodded, and followed him from the bedroom, down a narrow hallway, and into a small kitchen. The place was just barely large enough for three people, and I instantly felt bad about burdening Violet. We were taking up her space and time, all because we had the misfortune of pissing off Roger Mason.
“There’s some lunch meat in the fridge, and some fruit on the counter,” Violet said, stepping into her kitchen. “Quinten told me some of what you liked, but I wasn’t sure what you would feel like eating, so I tried to get a little bit of everything.”
“Thank you,” I said, touched she would do that for a stranger. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I did. You need a safe place to stay while you make your next move, and I’d like to help. I’m sure that your mate’s already filled you in on my history.”
I nodded.
“My mate and I were together for almost fifteen years, until he was killed, for the sole purpose of loving a vampire. It was almost forty years ago, and sometimes it still feels like it happened yesterday. If I can keep you two alive long enough to spite Roger, I’ll do anything I can to help.”
I nodded again. “That’ll work.”
She chuckled. “Help yourself to whatever it is you need, and then come join us in my gym.”
Her apartment looked much too small to have a gym, but I just nodded my head, and opened the fridge. I made a simple roast beef sandwich, grabbed an apple, and ate like I hadn’t in days. Quinten kissed me on the forehead, and then disappeared into the room farthest from the bedroom I woke up in.
I took my time eating and, when I was done, washed my plate in the sink, tossed my apple core in the trash, and headed into the room after Quinten. He smiled at me from his spot on a mat in the corner, and Violet scolded him for losing count. He sighed, and began doing crunches again.
“He’s out of shape. As a newly turned vampire, he should be able to do a couple hundred of these without breaking a sweat.” She looked over at me and frowned. “You’re probably out of shape, too. Pick a machine and start working.”
“Shouldn’t she rest for a bit?” Quinten asked worriedly, taking another break from his crunches. “She just woke up.”
“She’ll be fine. And you know what? Roger won’t wait for her to heal before he sends more people to kill the two of you. In fact, he’s probably already sent more our way in the hopes that they can finish her off before she fully recovers.” She looked at me again. “Get to it, now.”
I grabbed a set of dumbbells that weighed twenty pounds each, and started lifting. The muscles in my arms screamed at me, begging me to stop, but I pushed myself harder. I wasn’t going to get back to one hundred percent just by lying around. I had to move, and get fit.
“Violet, why exactly are you helping us train? Do you plan to openly disobey Roger like we have?”
“I’ve been disobeying him for years, since he killed my Peter. We were going to get married, you know. Then, a week before the wedding, Roger himself showed up on our doorstep, gun in hand. He shot Peter in the chest three times, and then he shot me twice. I took one to the stomach and one to the thigh. I got out of there, but Peter didn’t.”
“I’m sorry, Violet,” Quinten said, and he really did sound sorry. “I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Alanna.”
“You’d lose your mind in your grief. I know I did. It was years before I could fully function again, and even though I could, I always felt like I was on autopilot. Now I spend my spare time searching for a way to make Roger pay, and I think I’ve finally found it.”
“You’re gonna use us to get your revenge?”
She nodded once. “I hope so. If I can help the two of you survive, it just might piss him off enough for him to make a mistake. Then I can really get my revenge.”
It should bother me that she’s planning to use us for her own plans, but it doesn’t. As long as she can help keep us alive, I don’t care what she does with us. And having a vampire assassin on our side might not be such a bad thing.
I lifted weights for almost twenty minutes, but I had to eventually take a break to catch my breath. My arms were trembling, and they felt like jell-o. I wanted to keep going, but I didn’t want to push myself much farther.
So I settled for taking a seat on the mat beside Quinten, and he looked at me. “You tired?” he asked, grunting between crunches. Violet snaps her fingers, and he picks up his pace. He’d been doing crunches for over twenty minutes, and he hadn’t slowed down yet.
“Yeah, I’m exhausted. I think I need more rest. Or maybe just more food. I’m starving.”
“You just ate.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I know. But I’m still hungry.”
He chuckled, and took a break from his crunches. He took a few deep, even breaths, before turning over onto his stomach. He placed his hands shoulder-width apart, and started doing pushups. He counted quietly to himself while I watched.
I tried not to ogle him, but he’d taken his shirt off to train, and the muscles of his body were hard and perfectly sculpted. He’d changed a little since turning, and his body was more adult, more powerful, and more dangerous. He was truly a man now, capable of taking care of not only himself, but me as well.
I looked around the room, trying to keep my thoughts off Quinten, and studied the equipment around me. Violet had training mats, weights, jump ropes, and a treadmill. She even had a small mini-fridge in the corner, which I assumed was stocked with water, blood or some sports drink.
“Help yourself if you want,” Violet offered, not taking her eyes off Quinten’s back. “Keep going, you’re only at eighty-six.”
Only at eighty-six. I wonder how many she’s gonna have him do. Five hundred? A thousand? She’s insane.
“Uh, Violet? Do you have a restroom?” I asked, getting to my feet.
She nodded. “Right next to the bedroom you woke up in. There are clean towels and fresh soap if you wanna shower while you’re in there. Quinten cleaned you up as best as he could, but you could probably still use the hot water. He left a bag of your things on the counter.”
“Thank you,” I said, shutting the door behind me. The idea of a shower sounded nice, but that’s not what I needed. While sitting in the training room, I had the sudden urge to use the bathroom. It just hit me, and I wondered how long I’d been asleep, waiting to wake up and use the bathroom.
After I was done, I washed my hands and face with warm water, before taking a look at myself in the mirror. My eyes had dark purple circles under them from lack of decent sleep, and there was freshly healed pink skin on my torso. I could clearly see the line from the knife. It started just under my left collarbone, traveled between my breasts, and stopped just above my navel.
It must have been ugly at first.
Just thinking about all the blood had me feeling nauseous, and my stomach rolled. I barely made it to the toilet before everything I’d just eaten for lunch came back up. Normally the thought or sight of blood didn’t make me sick, so I figured it wasn’t that.
We’ve been under so much pressure since that day at the park when I first met Roger. He’s been hounding me and
trying to trap and kill me since then, and there’s no end in sight. How much longer can everyone go before we all just quit and give in?
So much pressure, so much stress, so little sleep. Ray told me once that he used to make himself sick with worry when I first started school. He didn’t like spending all day away from me, and would visit the school for story hour and recess all the time, just to see me and make sure I was alright.
That’s what he was doing the day Eli found me. His worries were finally real. Is that what I’m doing right now? Making myself sick with worry? I need to find a way to keep my stress down. Exercise should help with that once I get my strength back.
I grabbed my toothbrush from the small bag, and brushed my teeth as best as I could, hoping to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth. When I was done, I grabbed a clean towel, started the shower, and hopped in. The warm water felt great on my skin, and I took my time washing every last inch of my body.
The pink, jagged line down my chest was tender, and it tingled when I scrubbed it. The door opened and closed, and I smiled to myself. The curtain pulled back, and Quinten stepped into the shower behind me. I turned around, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him closer.
He bent his head down and kissed me. “You still tired?”
“Not too tired,” I said, smiling.
He kissed me again, and his hand slid down my back, pulling me even closer.
Chapter Eleven
The next morning, I woke up feeling much better than the day before. My muscles were still sore, but they didn’t hurt as badly as they did when I first woke up. The hot shower had helped, along with the relaxation that came from being with Quinten.
That’s all I needed, relaxation.
Quinten was cooking breakfast when I took a seat at the kitchen table, and I looked over at him. “Do you need any help?” I asked, frowning. It was almost ten o’clock already; I’d slept for almost eleven full hours last night!
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