Tainted (Vastow Vampires Book 1)

by J Johnson

  A vision forms but with each hit, it pulls me back out of it. I never get to see what happens in the vision because eventually I pass out, but only for a moment. I come too, with him still beating on me. Hitting me as hard as he can.

  I can’t help but wonder how so many women allow this to happen to them daily and survive it. I’d run for the hills if my man beat me like this all the time. I lose count with how many times he hits me until I can’t feel anything at all. The ground beneath me is cold and hard. And I can’t help but think this is it. This is how I’m going to die. I can see the headlines now: Social Worker Beaten to Death by an Angry Father.

  “Where the hell were you? If you loved her so damn much, then why weren’t you protecting her?”

  “I was at home. She was at work. I had no reason to believe she was in any danger.”

  “You need to stay the fuck away from her. She’s been beaten twice since meeting you. Do you honestly think that’s a coincidence?”

  “Back off before I rip your fucking heart out and show it to you!”

  “That’s right. Resort to violence. It’s what your kind is good at.”

  “Fuck you.”

  I can’t open my eyes and I’m not sure I want to. Everything hurts. I don’t think one part of my body isn’t feeling pain right now. I try to focus on the two voices who I have now distinguished as Jordan and Zane, to keep from feeling the pain.

  “This is un-fucking-believable. Don’t you see what you’re doing to her? She told me. She told me you told her everything. Why would you do that? Do you want her to be a target every time she walks outside? Are you fucking crazy? I should kill you right here and now.”, Jordan says.

  He’s trying his best not to yell, but he’s losing control and getting louder by the second.

  “I’d like to see you try.”, Zane says calmly. The differences in their tones are odd. And frightening. I’m more scared for Jordan, though. The calmness of Zane’s voice sends a shiver up my spine. “And I didn’t tell her shit. Not about that.”

  “Oh, I would, trust me. But the whole point in her coming here was for me to apologize for being an ass to her. I don’t think killing her boyfriend would help me any. What did you tell her then? Because she told me you told her everything. I assumed…”

  “You assumed because you’re an idiot. I told her what she needed to hear about what I do at night because you couldn’t keep your fucking nose out of my business. Now I’m tired of talking to you. Why don’t you just go do what you do and get the hell out of here? I’ll sit here until she wakes up.”

  “You mean you’ll sit here until you can’t any longer, then disappear. And she is my business. Has been for a long time. I give it two more weeks and you’ll be done with her like a piece of trash.”

  My heartbeat speeds up at the thought of losing Zane, but I can’t say that I haven’t thought the same thing already. He seems too good to be true, and there’s something off about him. I can’t figure it out. I stiffen at the sound of Zane’s voice. This time it’s deep, guttural, and full of anger.

  “If you ever say something like that about her again, I will rip you limb from limb slowly and make sure you don’t die until I’m done. Do I make myself clear?”

  Silence. I wait for someone to say something. I wonder if they’ve left the room, but then Jordan speaks.

  “That’s not possible.”, he says. He sounds like he’s had the shock of his life. “It can’t be. Please, for the love of God, tell me it’s not true.”

  “She doesn’t know. She knows nothing yet. I suggest you keep it that way.”

  “You can’t be serious. I will not sit back and watch as my friend dates a fucking…”, Jordan’s voice trails off and my heartbeat speeds up.

  Dates a what? What Jordan? Dates a what!?

  “She’s awake.”, Zane says. I feel someone grab my hand and stroke it. “Love. How are you feeling?”

  “Horrible.”, I answer him. “You both want to tell me what that was all about?”

  “It’s nothing Ash.”, Jordan replies. “We were just talking.”

  “I could hear that much.”

  My mouth hurts with every word. Someone grabs my other hand and I feel a jolt.

  I’m in an enormous room filled with mostly men. There’s are two thrones at the front. One of them is occupied by a large man that looks wild and crazy. The other is a beautiful woman. She has long dark hair, and she’s wearing a flowing white dress. She’s not moving, so she looks more like a statue than anything else. If she weren’t blinking, I’d swear she was a statue.

  “Welcome!”, the man says, his voice echoing through the massive room. “This beast has challenged me. He wishes to take my crown and my wife.”

  The men around the room make some kind of awful noise. When they finally quiet down, the man continues.

  “He claims that Atsila is his mate. And now he wishes to kill me and take what is mine. I accept his challenge and we will settle this today! I will kill him! No one will come and take what is mine! Let it be known around the world. This is what happens to anyone that challenges Waya, the King of the Kaluha People!”

  The men around the room roar with excitement.

  “Quiet!”, the man yells. “Atsila. Tell the beast how this works.”

  The beautiful woman stands up and looks at someone. I follow her gaze and gasp. It’s Jordan. He looks depleted and weak. He looks horrible. It’s then that I recognize the stone walls. This is the same place where the dungeon is from the previous vision.

  “The rules are simple. I will give you a choice of one weapon.” She holds her hand out and a few men enter the room, each one with a unique weapon. “After you choose your weapon, the fight will begin. There are no rules except one. The only way to win… is to kill your opponent. Not wound. Kill. One of you must die for the fight to be over.”

  “Thank you, Atsila. You may sit now.”, the man tells her.

  I watch as Jordan stares at the weapons. There’s a sword, an axe, a spear, a bow, a club with spikes on the end and two daggers.

  “I will choose first since you so boldly challenged me.”, the man says. “I choose the sword.”

  “The daggers.”, Jordan finally speaks.

  “Unchain him.”, the man says.

  A member of the guard removes the chains from Jordan, and they hand him the daggers.

  “Let’s begin. This will be fun and quick.”

  The man grins widely at Jordan as they walk around each other.

  I snap out of my vision and jerk away from Jordan reflexively.

  “What just happened?”, Zane asks. “What was that?”

  “What was what?”, I reply hoarsely.

  Please drop it.

  “She does that all the time.”, Jordan snaps. “If you paid any attention, you’d know that.”

  “She’s never done it with me. I’ve never seen that before.”

  Oh shit.

  Nine

  ∞∞∞

  Another week in the hospital from being attacked again. I think I should become the poster child for attack victims in parking lots and what not to do when by yourself.

  One. Don’t walk alone at night.

  Two. Don’t piss off men that may want to retaliate later.

  Three. Make sure you know a little basic self-defense.

  Yeah. I need some serious lessons on how to avoid such situations. Maybe I can get Zane to teach me how to defend myself. It’s obvious he knows how.

  I’ve dreaded the day that I get to come home because I know he’s going to bring up the incident in the hospital when I had my vision. He dropped it at the time, but I know him. He will not let it go that easily, and I have no idea how I’m going to explain it. If he were a complete stranger, I’d tell him like I do all the others. I have a condition that makes me zone in and out all the time. Since I’ve been with Zane for over two months and haven’t done it with him, he’s going to know better.

  He’s not the only one with questions,
though. The conversation between him and Jordan keeps playing in my head. What did Jordan mean when he said dating a fucking…? What was he going to say? And what is Zane not telling me? He’s obviously hiding something. Something other than his nightly activities.

  When we walk into his place, he guides me over to the couch to sit down and grabs me a bottle of water. He’s been super sweet and very overprotective the last week. He would sit with me over night while Zoe or Jordan sat with me during the day. When the doctor finally said I could leave, we argued for an hour over where I was going. He insisted I come to his place so he could take care of me until I was better. I have to admit it sounds nice. Especially with the broken ribs and severe bruising. It hurts to walk or even breathe right now.

  “Just relax, love. Do you want to lay here, or would you rather go to the bed?”, he asks.

  “Here for now if you don’t mind. I’d rather be in the room with you.”

  He bends down and brushes his lips across mine with a brief but tantalizing kiss. I instantly melt for him, my body going haywire for more contact, but the feeling is short-lived. He stands back up and smirks.

  “Not now, love. You’re not ready. Just lay down and relax while I do some paperwork and make a few calls. If you need anything, just ask me.”

  I nod as I sink into the couch, my eyelids already getting heavy from the pain medicine. I can’t help but smile at this intimidating man that is such a big teddy bear with me.

  “What’s so amusing?”, he asks.

  “Nothing. I’m wondering how many people would believe me if I told them you were nothing but a softy underneath all those muscles and tattoos.”

  “Well, let’s not do anything crazy like that, shall we? I have a reputation to maintain and softy is not on the resume.”

  “You are, though. You’re sweet and kind. You make sure I’m taken care of. You’re gentle with me. I don’t understand how I caught such a great guy.”

  He kneels down beside me and brushes my hair away from my face. His eyes lighten as they always do when he’s being so sweet to me. They are mesmerizing, and although I know it’s crazy, I swear sometimes they glow.

  “It isn’t you that’s caught a great guy Ashlyn. It’s I that has found an amazing, intelligent, beautiful woman. The moment I saw you, I knew there was a connection. I knew I’d protect you at all costs. And I swear to you from here on out, I won’t let anyone else hurt you. I could kill the man that did this to you.”

  “It’s okay, Zane. He was arrested so he’ll be spending some time in jail for a while.”

  “I know, but I still want to kill him.”

  My eyes are getting heavier with each word that is said. He continues brushing my hair with his fingers, relaxing me even more. I’m dozing off when I hear him whisper something that I’m not sure I heard correctly.

  “My Aroha. Ti amo tanto.”

  I’m not sure what aroha means, but I’m certain ti amo means I love you in Italian.

  It’s been a month since my attack and Zane hasn’t brought up the vision. He did however catch me talking to a damn ghost outside in the parking lot of the tattoo shop of all places. She approached me one day and said the words I’ve always dreaded hearing. Apparently, ghosts can communicate with each other and they’ve begun telling others that I can see and hear them. Now they’re actively seeking me out. Fan-freaking-tastic.

  I was so lost in the conversation with her and thought no one was around that I didn’t see or hear Zane come out of the building. When I was done helping her, he spoke and scared the shit out of me. I did some kind of pansy, sissy dance and screamed like a little girl.

  “Damnit Zane! You scared the hell out of me. Stop doing that.”

  “I’m sorry, love. I didn’t mean to scare you. You still haven’t answered my question, though. Who were you talking to?”

  “Uh… No one.”

  “Ashlyn. I just sat here and watched you carry on a conversation with someone for ten minutes. Try again.”

  How the hell am I going to explain this one?

  I go with what I tell everyone else, hoping it will work.

  “I do that sometimes. Have conversations with myself. I know. Crazy. I’m crazy.”

  “You’re not crazy love. And I don’t buy that you were talking to yourself. I heard the whole damn conversation, and you were talking to someone else.”

  “That’s crazy, Zane. There’s no one here but us. Seriously, I’ve done it all my life. I don’t know why. I used to have imaginary friends I talked to. I guess as I got older, I just replaced them with another version of myself. Maybe I should see a shrink.”

  I was scrambling, trying to get him to believe me. To believe anything other than the truth. I can’t tell him the truth. He really would think I’m nuts. I rush inside the building, hoping like hell he’ll drop the whole thing. He comes up behind me in the office and squashes all my hopes down.

  “I don’t buy it. You’ve done a few strange things since we’ve known each other, and I wasn’t going to say anything yet, but now that we’re on the subject I’d like a few questions answered if you don’t mind.”

  “What questions?”, I ask while avoiding eye contact.

  Damnit, I don’t want to lose him. The last person, besides Zoe, I tried to tell my secrets to left and called me a bat shit crazy lunatic. It was awesome.

  “Since I just witnessed that little scene in the parking lot, let’s start there. Who were you talking to? And don’t tell me no one or yourself. I’m not stupid, so please don’t treat me like I am.”

  I knew this day would come. I was just hoping it would be after we were married with a few kids. Or maybe never. I don’t know what I was hoping for. All I know is this will probably end our relationship, but he deserves the truth. I would want the truth.

  “Fine, but answer me one question first.” I plan on playing dirty.

  “Okay. One. Then you will explain what the hell is going on.”

  I nod in agreement. “What does ti amo mean?”

  His reaction isn’t the one I was expecting. I was expecting a little rambling or babbling. Maybe some stuttering and backpedaling. My plan was to change the subject entirely and turn the heat on him. It didn’t work. Without missing a beat, he replies with what I already knew.

  “It means I love you.”, he smirks at me. “Nice try, love. I know you heard me that night. And we’ll get back to that in a moment. Now it’s your turn. Who were you talking to?”

  Damn. That didn’t go as planned. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’m dancing and skipping around because he just admitted that he loved me. Which is only going to make this confession that much harder.

  “Sit down. This is going to sound crazy.”, I sigh.

  He takes a seat on the couch and throws his arm over the back of it. He looks relaxed, like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Must be nice.

  “I’m listening.”

  “Yeah. I’m getting to it.”

  I pace the floor in front of the coffee table, trying to will the words out of my mouth.

  “Just spit it out, love. Whatever it is, I promise I’ve heard crazier.”

  “I doubt that, but here goes nothing. I was talking to a woman named Anna. She was asking for my help. She wants me to find her husband and tell him she left some money under the floorboards at their previous apartment. She wants to make sure he gets it.”

  He doesn’t bat an eye. He doesn’t move. He does nothing out of the ordinary.

  “Okay. And where was this woman? Because I saw no one.”

  “Well... that’s kind of the crazy part. You can’t see her… because she’s a ghost.”

  His eyes widen a little at that, but he doesn’t run screaming from the room. That’s a plus. He’s silent for a moment, then nods.

  “So, you’re a medium.”

  “A what?”

  “A medium. They see, hear, and talk to spirits. It makes sense.”

  I stare at him like he’s sprouted three he
ads. He doesn’t seem fazed by this news at all.

  “It makes sense? None of it makes sense.”, I squeal.

  “Relax, love. It’s a gift. I don’t think you’re crazy.”

  I couldn’t have heard him right.

  “You don’t?”

  “No. Not at all. I’ve seen it before. I suspected you were, but didn’t want to presume. Now I know.”

  “You’ve seen it before? Other people can see them too?”

  I’ve completely forgotten about being nervous and now more interested in what he has to say. To think I’m not the only one is a relief. I had no idea. I’ve gone my entire life believing I was a one of kind freak.

  “We’ll get to that later.”, he says. “I still have other questions.”

  “Okay.”, I mumble. “But we will talk about that later. I want to know more about these other people.”

  “Deal. You want to tell me what happened that day in the hospital when your asshole of a friend grabbed your hand? You don’t do that when I grab your hand. I’ve seen you do it one other time too. The night you were attacked outside this building. You were doing the same thing.”

  “What was I doing exactly?”

  “You looked like you were in pain. Tensed up and zoned out.”

  “Yeah.”, I reply. “That sounds about right.” He raises a brow, waiting on me to explain further. “This one is crazier than the last one.”

  “So, it is something else you can do. I thought as much but wasn’t sure.”

  “So… Normally when someone touches me… I kind of get a glimpse of their future.”

  “Their future? Like you see things happen that haven’t happened yet?”

  “Yes.” He’s taking this all so well, which concerns me. Most people would tell me how crazy I am. “Why are you taking this all so well? You don’t have the same reaction most people do. Why is that?”

  He shrugs. “I’ve seen some crazy shit in my lifetime, so nothing surprises me. Please continue. What do you see?”

  “Well, normally I see future events. With Jordan, for example. I saw him locked up in a dungeon and then again fighting some crazy-looking man that claimed to be the king of the Kaluha people. I’m not sure what the hell it meant, but it was weird. Most of the time, though, I see how they will die.”