by C. L. Quinn
Now, trapped on the ground, the plane offered no defense for the man inside.
“We’re coming in. You have nowhere to run, so let this go easy.
A voice carried back to them through some kind of amplifier. “It won’t. I don’t know how you did that, but if you want this child to survive, you better undo it. If this plane doesn’t lift off in ten minutes, I know my fate. And you’ll seal the fate for this child. You’re right, there’s nowhere for me to go, so I have nothing to lose.”
The group looked at each other, wondering how this could be solved.
“We can’t compel him or freeze him if we can’t see him.”
“So I go in.” Cairine began to move toward the plane.
Ben grabbed her arm as she passed, and Eras came to the other side, a stronger grip on her wrist. “No.”
She faced the two men, moist eyes on one and then the other. “I will not let that child go with that man. I’m going in. You guys need to step back and be ready if I need help.”
“I’ll go,” Ben and Eras said simultaneously.
“Because psycho man will not find either of you threatening,” Cairine said with a smile. “I will be able to get onboard. You two, he’d shoot instantly. And that girl might get hurt.”
“I won’t let you go in alone,” Eras said, his fingers tightening.
Quiet for several seconds, Cairine just looked up at the plane. Its entry door was closed, but that didn’t pose a problem for her. She’d been playing with her power for some time and felt sure she could do what she needed to. The first test would be to get free of Eras’s grip.
“Thank you for trying to protect me.” In one movement, Cairine released herself from both men’s control and faced the group. “Forgive me.”
Lifting both hands, she created a barrier along the front of her group of rescuers. Ben pushed a fist against it and it just pushed back. Eras ran his fingers along the surface, his eyes lifting to Cairine.
“Neat trick, but there are many of us here. We’ll break it.”
“I know. But not before I get aboard. Don’t worry.”
Because she didn’t know how long the barrier would last against her friend’s power, Cairine ran to the plane, lowered the steps and disengaged the door in one move. Even she was surprised that this had gone so well.
The interior of the plane was much darker than the bright late morning light outside in the clearing. Her eyes adjusted quickly to see the man she sought at the back of the cabin, his hand on the head of the unconscious girl she would protect with her life.
He had a gun against the girl’s temple.
“You can’t win against me.” Cairine moved closer.
“Stop! If you want this kid to survive, you’ll get off this plane right now!”
It was unsettling to Isiah to issue a warning like that and see the woman smile.
“You don’t want me to. If you think that girl is fascinating, well, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
Cairine lifted a palm to show scatters of sparks playing across the surface of her skin. They finally coalesced into a tiny ball of living flame. The ball writhed and danced on her hand as it grew, larger and larger, until it was about 12 inches across.
Isiah watched the contained flames lift, licking her hand, tasting the air, the crackle louder and louder as it rose.
Mesmerized, he whispered, “What are you?” His eyes moved across a perfect face and body. She was exquisite. Her pale red hair glowed and big eyes sparkled.
“You’re extraordinary.”
“I am. So if you let her go to my friends, I’ll stay onboard. You must admit that I’m the greater prize. She’s just a little girl.”
Now Isiah smiled. “We both know that isn’t true. But yes, I admit I must have you. Here’s my deal. You come with me, and I promise that neither of you will be harmed. I fully expect that at some point, you’ll overpower me, take her, and likely kill me. But for now, I have to know what you are, what she is. Scientific curiosity will kill the cat, but I have to take that risk.”
“No. Let her go.”
“I’m willing to die and take her with me if you won’t comply. I think you can tell that I’m serious. I mean every word.”
Yes, she believed him. She could feel the intensity of fascination and obsession on this man. Once the girl was safe, Cairine thought that it might actually be possible for her to kill this man. And that shocked her.
“Take the syringe on that table and inject it into your arm. But before you do, can you free up the plane’s engines?”
“I can.”
“Okay, beautiful. It’s up to you. If I die, it isn’t really a loss to the world. But this sweet child, that would be the shame.”
Cairine could feel the power pushing through her barrier. She had seconds to make a decision.
Whirling, she started the engines of the plane and pulled the door closed. Turning back to Isiah, her face serious now, she looked at the prone girl, then back into Isiah’s eyes.
“Let me just make sure you know…if you hurt her in any way, I won’t kill you. Not right away. I’m a gentle woman, but I can meet an enemy on their own ground. You see, I’m one of the greatest warriors this planet has ever known, and you’ve only seen a taste of what I can do.”
“Fair enough. Let me say that meeting you is the highlight of my life, so if that event eventually ends me, I’m okay with that. You won’t believe me, but I am not an evil man. However, I am willing to do what I must to accomplish something of such great importance in humanity’s history. I think that you might be it.”
“Well, fucking bully for you. Strap her in, we’re taking off.”
“Oh, fuck…”
Eras watched the engines rev and knew that they wouldn’t be able to stop the plane now. Cairine was the most powerful and she’d blocked them enough to dull their reach.
“Aw, Rodney is gonna be so pissed!” Ben shook his head and tried to figure out if he had any moves at all to stop this. He’d known a long time ago that he was a gnat compared to these vampires. This was happening. The girl they had spent a lifetime protecting was on a jet to God knows where with a known psychotic murderer.
How could this possibly end well?
Ben watched, along with the collection of Cairine’s friends, as the plane taxied down the short runway and lifted into the sky. He looked to Eras at his side and saw the uncontrolled fury in his eyes and body. Hands clenched at his side weren’t the only outward sign that the boy wasn’t handling this well.
“Let’s go.” Eras marched at a fast pace the direction they’d just traveled. The troupe had trouble keeping up, but, at a run, Bryson and Caedmon caught up with him.
“We’ll get her back,” Caedmon said.
“There isn’t any doubt. Although, that man on the plane, she’ll tear him apart if she has to. If he hurts her or the girl he kidnapped, though, I’ll do it much more slowly. He thinks he’s won? Fuck him to the moon!”
He couldn’t imagine a world without Cairine in it. Nothing had better happen to a hair on her lovely head. Eras knew what he had to do now, all he could do. He had to focus on finding out where that plane would land, and how fast he could get there. He needed to speak with the humans in that other cage.
AT THE WAREHOUSE
“The guards are wiped, they’re gone, the asshole who tried to take Pilar is wiped and gone, with a few creative addendums.” Rodney sipped on a cola he’d taken from the refrigerator in the strange little cafeteria as they waited for the others to return. His head was ready to explode. Ben had phoned him ten minutes ago to tell him that things had gone sidewise with the rescue. When he finally revealed that Cairine had gotten into the plane with the culprit and it had flown out, it had taken every fiber of his control not to shove a hole in the wall.
“Good. I’ve released the captives. They’re innocent in this debacle.” Shani perched up on a countertop, her eyes moving across his body as he lounged in one of the chairs. God, she wanted to f
eel every inch of that body.
First though, they had to fix the one thing that had gone wrong here. Cairine was missing, along with Kalia’s oldest daughter, and they were anything but safe.
“Koen, Tamesine, Park, Bas, and Xavier are flying in tonight.”
“We’re going to find her, Rodney. It isn’t your fault.”
He didn’t answer Shani, his eyes closed, his body tight with fury.
Shani jumped off the counter, walked to him and dropped onto her knees to wrap her arms around his waist.
“It isn’t your fault,” she repeated.
He didn’t move. Her fingers splayed along his thigh, her cheek against the hard muscle, Shani swallowed. She’d never convince him, she knew that.
“Rodney…”
Suddenly he turned and surged up, pulling her with him. Lifting her into his arms, he buried his face in her hair. Now, with her arms around his shoulders, she could feel how tight he was, and he was shaking.
“I can’t let anything hurt her.”
“It won’t. Cairine made the decision, it isn’t your responsibility.”
He looked into Shani’s eyes. “All of you are my responsibility. My reason to exist is to protect you.”
“You’ve done a fine job of it. Rodney, we’re adults now. You have no children to watch over anymore. It’s time you move on.”
“I can’t imagine a day when I won’t watch over you and the others.” He paused. “Especially you. No matter where you go or who you’re with, I’ll always want to know you’re safe.”
Frustration burned suddenly, and Shani pushed against him to free herself from his embrace. As Rodney set her down, she shoved him, both hands planted on his chest. Rodney fell back against the wall, while she continued her attack. Capturing her hands, he pulled her to him again. “What did I say?”
Her hands balled up, she yanked to free them. “No matter where I go? Who I’m with? You want to see me with someone else? You want to watch me kiss another man? Watch over me as I make love to him?”
The fury that had already been overwhelming him exploded. Rodney grabbed her hand, drew her to a dilapidated couch in the corner and pulled her onto his lap. Her face in his hands, he stared into her eyes before he leaned in and kissed her, gently, on the lips, then her eyelids, and back to linger briefly on her lips again.
“No,” his voice gruff, emotions ragged. “But that will happen. You’re so beautiful, men will wait in line for a chance to win you. The one who does will be the luckiest man in the world.”
Shani slid her hands beneath his vest, the fingers seeking the well-cut muscle, the smooth skin, the heat.
“Then that man is you. I choose you, Rodney. From that moment on the beach, I can’t shake the image of lying with you, naked, touching you, everywhere. I want to discover my sexuality with you. I want to feel you, on me, in me, inside me. It’s you I want.”
“Ah, little one, I would be honored to teach you the ways of love. But I am not for you. You’re young and beautiful, powerful. I’m attractive and convenient.”
“No…”
“Shani, you’re going to be a first blood vampire, and the experiences that await you are extraordinary. I wish I were grand enough for a chosen one. But you, my lovely girl, were never meant for one as small as I. It is my loss and my sorrow to carry, I assure you. There is a grand life ahead of you and a man worthy to be with you. I am not that man.”
Silent, Shani just sat on his lap, her fingers still pressed into his chest, his hands now moving down to cup her buttocks as she started to slide off his lap. Repositioning her, he reached up and pushed a swath of hair behind her ear.
“You know that I want you, I can’t hide that. I just can’t have you.”
Pulling her hands from his chest, Shani touched his face, her fingers now wandering around his features. “All right. Thanks for the lesson in what’s best for me.”
For the second time today, she slid away from the man she wanted to touch more than anything in the world.
“Understand that I’m not very good at doing what I’m told to do.”
The interruption that came a split-second later was welcome. Brigitte entered, spied the refrigerator, and headed to it for a cold drink. “The nephew says that his uncle has a lab in Spokane. But he also said that he’s smart enough to know that we’d find that out, and so he likely wouldn’t go there. He’s searching on his laptop for other places his uncle might go. Jackson’s a nice guy, he wants to help.”
She popped the cap on a can of ginger ale and turned toward Shani and Rodney. Her gaze shifted quickly back and forth between them.
Shani stood against the wall, her chest rising and falling quickly. Rodney was just rising from the couch near the back of the cafeteria.
“Did I…uh, interrupt something?”
“No,” Shani and Rodney answered simultaneously.
“Um, O-kay. So, the hunting party will be here in a few minutes, we saw them coming toward the warehouse. Xavier’s plane will bring Cairine’s parents and Koen here tonight. Anything else we can do?”
Both Brigitte and Shani looked at Rodney. He pulled his vest into place from where it had ridden up. “Not that I can think of. We can’t trace her, can we?”
“Still human blood, so no, they can’t. Rodney, you, however, are incredibly powerful and you’re still fully human. How does that happen?”
He hesitated, and Brigitte rolled her eyes.
“I’m a damned earth warrior, so I should be fully trustworthy, right?”
“You’re right. It’s something that your parents don’t want repeated, so be aware of that. The leader of the SRS took large amounts of blood from several first bloods. When he ingested it, because of the combination and concentration of blood from such powerful sources, he received many of the abilities of the first bloods. He maintained them for a long time, even after he no longer had any access to the blood. So, lesson learned, I’ve been taking combination blood cocktails to give me the power to protect you children for the past twenty years. Koen believes that since I’ve been taking it so long, my abilities have grown stronger. This information would be incredibly dangerous if the wrong people were to ever find out.”
Brigitte whistled. “I’ll say. We’d be targeted and cut down like the Amazonian rain forest was. Wow, Rodney, that makes you a very unique human being. Hell, you might even be a species all on its own. A vampire-human hybrid.”
Shani stepped forward. “He’s unique, and very special. Bridge, come on, let’s go meet the team.”
She followed Brigitte from the room, but looked back at Rodney just before she disappeared.
Dropping back onto the sagging couch, Rodney reached into his pack and pulled out a flat flask. Koen had hidden it in there for him, a small stash of his finest Scotch. With ragged emotions and a desperate rescue facing him, Rodney drew down every last drop. His metabolism had ramped up just like a vampire’s and it took a lot of Scotch to do anything for him. Luckily, he had unlimited access to Koen’s liquor. He anticipated that in the coming months he would have to raid Koen’s Scotch cabinet way too often.
“So, Cairine, my darling, you’ve gotten yourself into quite the fix. I’m comin’ for you, even if I have to travel with Dante himself.”
IN ISIAH’S JET HEADING NORTH
“Where are you taking us?”
“I haven’t decided.”
Cairine was bound now, her hands attached to the seat, separated, her feet bound apart as well. The man had taped her fingers down so that she couldn’t focus her magic. After she awakened from the sedative he’d forced her to use, her first thought was for Su’ad. She searched and found her two rows behind her on the opposite side of the plane. She was awake, but did not move her eyes from the window.
“Surely you know where you’re going. Don’t you have to file a flight plan?”
“Usually, yes. But that’s not possible now, is it? I’m a hunted man. And I can’t go anywhere I normally would. I have little
doubt that my nephew is helping your friends.”
“Then he’s a better man than you.”
Isiah stopped moving, his eyes locked on Cairine.
“You’re right, of course. He’s a good-hearted, brilliant young man and I am immeasurably proud of him.”
“Yet you shoved him in a cage and abandoned him. He might have died.”
“You understand then the measure of my determination to find out what you two are and how you differ biologically from normal humans. I mean, obviously there’s human DNA, look at you. But that child has vertically elongated pupils, not human, typical of ambush predators. Pair that with persistent stories in this region of people who can morph into a wild cat, and I have a scientific mystery that must be explored. So, yes, I may have been capable of letting my nosy nephew and his friends die if pursuit of the science required it.”
“You said that you weren’t an evil man. You might want to rethink that. I’d say your photo is right next to the word in the dictionary.”
“Dear, men have done much worse for far less.”
“Hmmm…not comforting. Are you going to feed us?”
“When we arrive, yes. You are going to be the concern. How do I let you eat when I know I cannot unbind you?”
“You’ll just have to trust me.”
“I was born at night, but not last night, so, no. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out.”
“Not worried. I don’t suppose you’d let me see my cell phone? It isn’t like I could tell anyone where I am.”
“It’s gone. GPS. Threw it from the plane as we took off.”
Shit. Cairine was hoping to use the GPS to let them know where she was. Couldn’t get a break. No worries, though. If she couldn’t outsmart this vile asshole, she was a piss-poor soldier for the earth.”
A few minutes later, Isiah went to the cockpit to strategize with the pilot.
“Su’ad,” Cairine called back gently. “Are you okay?”
