by Salem Cross
“You wanted to know why I worried about how your parents will react to me. I didn’t care about what Derek’s parents had to say about me, but I do care about what yours will think and say. I’m a child of a… god,” she almost choked on the word, her face scrunched up in disgust. “If they were slaves to one, then they know how horrible the gods truly were. I’m sure they will be concerned for your safety around me. In which case, they will be right to be worried. Who knows what my power does to you whenever you drink my blood or involuntarily absorb it when we have sex?”
“I promise you that they will love you instantly,” I assured her.
My parents were some of the few truly decent people left in this world. I looked forward to greeting them with the ability to love them as I once had when I was a child.
I pulled into the gravel parking lot of the Nature Center and parked the truck. I turned to look at Mae who was watching me with skepticism. I sighed.
“If by some terrible turn of events they do not approve of you, there is nothing that can be said that would make me see you in any other way than the woman that I love. When we have children, it will not matter to me that they have the blood of a god running through them either. But like I said, you are worried about nothing.”
She jerked her hand away from mine with a look of horror on her face.
“Stop bringing up kids! You’re freaking me out,” she snapped as she threw open the truck door and hopped out. Laughing, I got out of the truck.
As I shut the truck door, the scent hit me. I came around the truck and grabbed Mae’s arm to jerk her back towards the vehicle. Before she could say anything I reached out to her:
There is a vampire inside posing as a park ranger. There are four humans in total inside, two downstairs and two in a small office on the second floor. I will deal with the vampire. You can talk to the humans.
The surprise on her face turned into excitement.
A real vampire? Are we talking about sophisticated ones like in the movie Interview With a Vampire or are we talking about deranged crazy, blood-sucking assholes? No, wait, this one has to be intelligent; he’s mingling with humans. Do they sparkle?
This is not a game, Mae. If you cannot get your excitement under control, then wait out here, I snapped at her.
I know it’s not a game. You’re here. I am sure I will be fine. It’s just a lot to take in, you know? It’s both scary and exciting. I can’t help it, but I’ll behave.
I let go of her arm to take her hand. We headed towards the nature center, my body on high alert for any signs of trouble.
I’m assuming that not all vampires are bad, right? Mae asked. I could feel her excitement humming inside of me. Her faith in my ability to protect her to the point that she was more eager than scared about meeting a vampire was humbling.
No, but they are always hungry, and that should always put you on guard, I warned. Their motives for providing information in any given situation may be because they believe it will not leave the two of you if they want you as a meal.
Do they drink a person dry or are they like a Guardian and can leave their victims alive? she asked. She reached for the door to the Nature Center, but I was already there. I opened it and walked inside first to assess the situation. The two human park rangers looked up and greeted us warmly. The vampire, on the far side of the room, visibly cringed when our eyes met.
The vampire is on the far left of the room. Go talk to the humans and gather what information you can from them, I shared with her as I stepped aside for her to enter the building. The vampire’s eyes fixed onto Mae at once.
That’s the vampire? Mae asked incredulously. I’m more afraid of his cholesterol than anything that he could do to me.
I choked back a laugh as she wandered past glass cases filled with informational plaques and items from around the park. While she was right that the vampire looked far from intimidating, I knew that made him even more dangerous. Mae had been expecting Hollywood’s version of a vampire: beautiful, elegant, and mysterious. The vampire I strolled up to appeared to be a balding middle-aged man, with large bifocal glasses, and weighed nearly triple what a man his height should.
He stood up from the stool he was sitting on and took a step backward as if to bolt.
“Good morning,” I started and flashed him a grin. The vampire looked towards the other park rangers for help, but when he realized their attention was on my mate, the vampire dragged his gaze back to me.
“Hello, Guardian, what an honor it is to be graced with your presence,” he said softly and bowed his head. “What can I do for you today?”
“Take me upstairs, and order the humans to leave the office so we can have some privacy. We have much to discuss.”
Chapter Eighteen
Mae
I didn’t watch as Rylan ascended the stairs with the vampire. I needed to focus on my part. I wasn’t sure what information I could gather from these two park rangers that Jasmine hadn’t been able to compel out of them, but I would try. I clasped my hands behind my back and continued to study the small skeletal system of a mouse in the case before me. I moved on to the next item, a picture of an owl, a predator of the mouse.
“Good morning, miss. My name is Thomas Marque, a park ranger here at Jasper National Park. I know everything about the park so if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me,” a ranger said with a warm smile as he walked over to me. He had to be in his early thirties. He had mousy brown hair, a pale complexion, and a hook nose. “Here to enjoy a day of hiking?”
“Yes,” I said with a smile. “My husband loves reading up about a place before we hike it, so here we are in here rather than out on the trails. I’m so frustrated. I’d rather be out there now when all the animals are out and about.”
“Oh, you’ll see plenty of animals here,” Thomas assured me.
Two rangers descended the stairs that Rylan had just taken. Both men walked over to a door, which I assumed led into a back room, and disappeared from view. When they were gone, I turned back to Thomas.
“My friend was here last week and said she saw wolves,” I said leaning in towards Thomas with a conspirator’s smile. “I told her that wolves don’t get anywhere near people, but she insisted it was a wolf. Have you seen any nearby?”
“They definitely live in the park, but they aren’t usually seen around here. You are plenty safe,” Thomas assured me. “Wolves aren’t known for coming where humans are unless they are starving. We’re too loud and annoying to be around.” He chuckled. “I don’t know how far you’re looking to hike today, but if you take the red trail, that’s a good fifteen miles. You may see a glimpse of an elk, mountain goats, a few foxes, and the American Dipper should be out.”
“Oh, that sounds lovely. I’ll have to let Rylan know,” I said. “Do you happen to have a map with the trails marked? Maybe you could show me a few places to stop where we could get a great view of the area?”
“I have one right here, ma’am!” the second park ranger said, coming over with a pamphlet in his hands. He had bright red hair with a matching beard. He was barrel-chested, taller than his co-worker, and about ten years older. “If you would like, I can walk with you and your husband for a bit to give you a little bit of history about the park and about the wildlife.”
I reached out to grab the pamphlet.
“That’s so generous of you,” I told him with a smile. As I grabbed the pamphlet from his hands my fingers skimmed over his. The moment we made contact the park ranger stiffened. His eyes went wide, and the veins in his face began to pop out.
“Jeff, you alright buddy?” Thomas asked with concern as the second ranger stumbled backward.
“When they come, those that are deemed unworthy will perish. We will be slaves to the whim of the Gods and love them as we were always supposed to,” Jeff muttered. My heart dropped at his words. Oh shit, what was happening? His eyes were pinned to me, so I noticed when they glazed over. “We will serve them again!” he scream
ed suddenly.
“Woah, Jeff, what are you saying right now? Is this some weird joke?” Thomas asked as he reached out to touch his arm, but Jeff jerked away from him, reached down, and grabbed his gun off his belt. I grabbed Thomas’s wrist and yanked him away from the deranged redhead.
Jeff’s face started to turn purple, and his body began to tremble.
“You are unworthy,” Jeff whispered to the younger ranger and pointed the gun at him.
I moved quickly. I stepped forward and slapped the gun out of my face as Jeff turned it towards me. I slammed my knee into his gut, grabbed his wrist to keep the gun from being pointed at me, and punched his throat with my other hand. Jeff coughed and sputtered, but he didn’t loosen his hold on his gun. I applied pressure to his wrist and suddenly his fingers went slack. I grabbed the gun and slammed my elbow into his nose, causing him to stumble back.
“Glory to the Gods!” a voice cried out from behind me.
I turned around to see Thomas pull his gun and place it against his temple.
“No!” I screamed.
I left Jeff to tackle Thomas to the ground. As we went down, we knocked over a glass display case, and the glass shattered. I threw the first gun away from us and wrestled Thomas for his. The two park rangers who had walked into the back room came rushing out.
“What the hell is going on?” one of them shouted out as they hurried over to us.
He was older, maybe in his sixties, with tufts of white hair jetting out from under his hat. Jeff lunged at his fellow ranger with a deranged cry. With a grunt, I punched Thomas in the face three times before he went slack. I grabbed his gun and shoved it into my waistband before rushing over to pull Jeff off the elderly ranger who struggled against the attack.
“Jeff, what the hell? It’s me, Winston!” the man screamed.
My fist connected with Jeff’s spleen, and he cried out in pain. He spun around to attack me. Winston grabbed my elbow to pull me away, but the moment he touched me his face tensed. His grip became tighter as he leaned over me with a manic look in his eyes.
“We will serve our gods again! We must prepare for their arrival and cleanse these woods of the unworthy!” Winston dramatically declared. The fourth ranger, who was about Thomas’s age, looked stunned at the chaos that was erupting between his co-workers.
My foot connected with the older man’s junk, and he keeled over. I punched his face and whirled around to meet Jeff halfway as he lunged for me. I ducked, spun, and kicked his legs out from under him. As he stumbled past me, I jumped up and brought my elbow into his neck. He cried out in pain. Before I could finish Jeff off, someone grabbed me from behind. I elbowed my attacker in the side, and when he loosened his grip, I turned to find Thomas had gotten to his feet. I slammed my palm into his nose, effectively breaking it. I didn’t stop there. I punched Thomas in the throat, his gut, and finished him with another fist to the face. His unconscious body fell to the ground.
As the older gentleman, Winston, reached for me, I jumped over a display case. I grabbed the gun in my waist belt, and as the older man made his way around the glass case I used the butt of the handle to hit the man in the forehead. He collapsed on the ground, unconscious. A noise from behind me alerted me to more danger.
I whirled around to find Jeff on top of the fourth ranger, strangling him. I ran over to the both of them and punched him in the face. Jeff let go of the fourth ranger to come after me again. I jumped on his back, wrapped my arm around his neck, and applied pressure. He struggled against me but, already injured and unable to get me off his back, he collapsed as he fell unconscious.
The fourth ranger jumped to his feet and backed away from his colleagues, his eyes wide with horror. He looked from me to the other rangers, then back at me as I got to my feet.
“What’s happening to their faces?” the ranger asked in a hushed whisper.
I turned and looked down at the three men. Black veins were stretching from the creases of their eyes and creeping down their faces. Their skin shriveled and wrinkled. Their bodies began to twitch violently, and involuntary groans escaped past their suddenly dried, cracked lips. I cringed away from their flailing bodies. Both the ranger and I gasped when blood began to pour from their ears.
What was happening? I put my hand over my mouth to cover up a horrified shriek. Okay, I didn’t have time to freak out. I had to help them. With a deep, steadying breath, I stepped towards the bodies. The fourth ranger tried to stop me, but I jerked away from his hand. This had all happened when they had touched me. I was the cause of this. My stomach twisted in fear.
I dropped to my knees next to Jeff and leaned over him to study his face. The black veins were spreading, covering his entire face. This had to be dark magic. My power must have triggered a response in their bodies. Now they were suffering. I had to do something to stop it. I reached out with shaking hands and placed them on his face.
“You shouldn’t touch them!” the ranger behind me shouted out in alarm.
I ignored him, focused on the man I held and took a deep breath. If my power could protect Arthur, Jasmine, and Rylan from the dark toxin in the air, maybe it could save and protect this innocent man. My power surged forward almost immediately and, to my surprise, easily. It slipped from my palms, coating Jeff’s body with a violet hue, and then it soaked into Jeff’s face and disappeared into his body. His body began to seize up, his limbs flailing everywhere. I bit my lip and cringed as he hit me, but I did not let go of his face. Gritting my teeth, I forced a little more power to seep into Jeff.
Suddenly, his flailing stopped, and his body went limp. I let my hands drop, and I watched his face. Nothing happened. Had I made it worse? Had he died? I swore under my breath as I leaned over to check his pulse. Just then, a long groan bubbled up past his lips. The black veins began to recede, and his wrinkled face began to smooth back out.
“What did you do? You fixed him!” the ranger said behind me in a strangled cry of excitement and fear.
I didn’t wait. Whatever I’d just done, the others needed, too. I reached for the older man next and shoved my power into his body. I waited to make sure that the dark magic receded before moving on to Thomas. As I worked on Thomas, upstairs I heard a muted shriek and glass shattering. Refusing to lose focus, I closed my eyes and pumped more of my power into Thomas. When I was done, I leaned back on the balls of my feet and watched as his face smoothed out.
I turned to the fourth ranger, who was staring at his comrades in shock. His face was ashen, and from the way he was breathing I could tell he was on the verge of fainting. I hesitated to reach out to comfort him. If my touch caused the dark magic to somehow react within these rangers, what would stop it from happening to him ?
But if he had dark magic in him, it would be the responsible thing to remove it if I could, right? Could I somehow bypass the violence to remove the dark magic in this ranger’s body? The man ran both hands through his hair and tugged at it as he stared down at the other rangers.
“I gotta– I gotta call the cops or something. I’m not equipped to deal with this,” he stammered and took a step back.
I called up my power again, reached out, and grabbed his arm gently. The ranger froze and his eyes glazed over. I pushed my power into him. I needed to trigger the response and then remove the dark magic without having to fight him off. His body seized. I had to let go of his arm to catch his body as he fell forward.
Gently, I placed him on the ground. Anxious to make sure he would be alright, I crouched down next to him and waited for his body to go limp. When it did, I checked his pulse and sighed with relief when I found one. Now what? I looked at all four unconscious men and felt panicked. What if someone walked in and found them like this? Did they need medical assistance? Should I call for an ambulance?
As I stood up, the ceiling came crashing down several feet away from me. I yelped in surprise and watched wide-eyed as Rylan landed gracefully on his feet while battling four creatures that I could only assume were vampi
res. They were thin, pale monsters that moved with an amazing amount of speed. They had slits where a nose would be, no eyebrows or hair, and pointed ears. The vampires had long jagged nails that they were using to slash and tear Rylan’s bare skin. One was perched on his back between Rylan’s wings, two were trying to attack him on either side, and the fourth was tearing at his chest.
Rylan’s wings flapped once, hard, which bucked the vampire off his back. He roared while he grabbed the vampire on his left and ripped off one of its arms. The creature screamed as Rylan continued his assault and grabbed the vampire by its esophagus. Rylan’s grip tightened, crushing its throat, and then he yanked out the trachea. The vampire collapsed in a heap on the ground before the body exploded into ash. Rylan backhanded the vampire trying to claw a hole through his chest, and the vampire flew across the room with an angry shriek.
Without any plan, I leapt forward and threw my hands up. A wave of energy from my power erupted, and the vampire on Rylan’s right was hit and knocked off my mate. The creature landed on its feet and turned his attention to me with an evil hiss. I didn’t give it a chance to attack. I allowed more power to come forth. The vampire screamed as his clothes caught on fire. Rylan pulled his sword from his tattoo on his lower abdomen and cut the creature’s head off. The body and the head exploded into ash.
Rylan continued to move. He slammed his fist through the chest of one of the vampires and ripped a large black thing from its chest. I gasped in horror as I realized it was a blackened but still-beating heart. Rylan crushed it in his grasp, and the vampire exploded. Rylan whirled around and did the same to the vampire who tried to reattach itself to his back. The creature let out a blood curdling scream as it died.
Rylan spun and grabbed the fourth vampire attempting to escape. It hissed at us. He grabbed the vampire by the bottom jaw, sinking his elongated nails into the creature’s skin. Then, he grabbed the top of the vampire’s bald head and twisted his hands in opposite directions. The bottom jaw popped off like a lid on a jar. A moment later, the vampire burst into ash.
