Lucha turned to me. He had the other vampire at arms length. He looked down at the vampire on the ground and back up at me. He nodded his head in approval. Apparently, I’d done a good thing. Kill a vamp, gain a nod--score one for me.
The air behind me moved. A cold staticy tingle slithered up my back. I spun around with my leg extended. My foot came into contact with a vampire’s head. He grabbed my foot and twisted it, sending me to the ground. He took one look at me and then looked at Lucha.
"What the hell?" His voice was tainted with a bit of an accent. If I had to lay money on it, I’d say Scottish. His red hair hung in his eyes, and he pushed it back to get a better look at me. He had that great color of red, not the fake red that you see so many teens trying to wear, but true red. His skin was as pale as Folco’s. His eyes were only a few shades lighter blue than my own. "Linnea?"
"I don’t know, maybe. I go by Valerie." I extended my hand out to him. It was a brave move on my part. I got the feeling that he was on our side. He hesitated before he accepted my hand, pulling me up gently and bringing my hand to his lips. His kiss was chaste yet I still moaned softly. Heat rushed to my face and I knew I was blushing.
"Aye, it’s good to see you again, lass," he said, his voice warming my very soul. "It’s been awhile."
"Well, Scotty, you know my name now, what about yours?"
I think I saw him blush. When he spoke again it was with almost perfect English. "I’m sorry, name’s Kerr."
"Kerr, see her safely back to her house," Lucha said.
I turned and looked at Gregory. He was in the process of fighting off two more vampires. Guytano was doing the same. Lucha saw my concern. He came to me and touched my cheek. His hand was so cold that I almost pulled away, but I didn’t. I turned my face into his palm and closed my eyes for a minute, savoring the way he made me feel. Lucha made a small noise and I looked to find his face full of raw emotion. "I give my word that I will see that they are safe. I cannot watch them and you. Go with Kerr, he will see you to safety."
With that I turned and led Kerr back to Molly’s house, I’m not sure why I bothered moving out. I’d spent more time at her place in the last twenty-four hours than at my own home. We were sprinting by the time we reached Molly’s. I came to a grinding halt. Her front door stood wide open, and the living room window was smashed in. No lights were on. "Molly!" I screamed as I ran in the front door. I ran into the entrance. I called her name out. No one answered me. I searched with my hands for the light switch. My fingers ran across it, nothing. I had to fight hard to keep from panicking. I kept my hand on the wall and moved quickly toward the living room.
"Linn ... Valerie," Kerr called out from the porch.
"Come in!"
"Thanks."
"Molly?" I called out. I could feel Kerr close at my back. I knew that he would do as Lucha told him. I wondered how much of his loyalty was to his Master and how much was to me. He touched my shoulder lightly and I panted. I turned toward him wanting desperately to know how I knew this vampire.
"I think we should look upstairs," he said, effectively bringing me back to the task at hand.
"Why?"
"Cause that’s where the smell of blood is comin’ from," he said, slipping right back into his Scottish accent.
I turned and ran for the steps. It wasn’t easy to maneuver in my old house in the dark. I hit the stairs before I thought I would and stumbled up two. Kerr was right behind me guiding me back to my feet. I took the steps two at time and ran for Molly’s room. I felt for her doorknob. Something cool and sticky coated it. I jerked my hand back. It smelled sweet and coppery. It was blood. I reached back down and twisted the handle. The door flew open. I ran in. The room was so dark. There was no moon out tonight and walking in her room was a little like walking in a black hole of nothingness. My knee slammed into the corner of her bed. I jerked it back, and let out a small noise.
"Are you all ri..." Kerr’s voice was cut short. I heard a loud boom from the doorway, followed closely by the very obvious sounds of something heavy tumbling down the steps. I turned to run out after him. Molly’s door slammed shut.
"No, I think you’ll be staying here with me." Payton said. His body blocked the door. I looked around for a weapon of some sort. I couldn’t kill him but I wouldn’t let him kill me.
"Payton, where’s Molly?"
He smiled. He looked like a stranger to me. There was no trace of the Payton I knew. "They let me play with her before you came."
"God, no, Payton, she’s your friend."
He licked his lip. "She was a good friend, too."
Molly was dead, she had to be. I knew that now, and I also knew that Payton had killed her. I made a move to the right. He was a blur, his body smashed into mine. We fell back onto the bed and he ripped at my clothes. I slapped and clawed at his bare back.
"Fight if you want, but we both know that you’ve already given it up to me anyway," he said.
I couldn’t argue with that. Things were different now. He wasn’t the same man that he was before. I pushed at him to get him off me. I felt him through my thin pants, growing hard. His mouth came down on my lips. He nicked my lip with his fangs. Blood swelled to the surface, and he pressed his body against me with such force that I thought the bed would give out beneath us. I pried him off of my face. My fingers dug at the corners of his mouth. I was pretty sure that I was going to be losing one or two of them if this continued. I’d made up my mind that I’d sacrifice some digits to stay alive.
"Dr. Sullivan!" I screamed into his face. "DOC!" He blinked at me.
"Valerie?" he asked. He looked down at me. "Are you hurt?" His hand squeezed my breast hard. He let go of it immediately and looked down at himself. He was naked and covered in blood. "Valerie, honey what’s going on?"
"I’ll tell you what’s going on." Sive’s voice came at us from the doorway. "You are mine now and I demand you to fuck her and than kill her."
Payton looked down at me. His eyes widened. "What? Valerie? I don’t want to..." he stopped. I’m glad he did because we both knew that he most certainly did want to fuck me. It’s the killing me part that had him stumped.
"Do you dare to defy me?" Sive sounded livid. "Kill her!"
I saw the struggle happening within Payton. He looked down at me and then leaned forward kissing my cheek gently. "Run!" he whispered. He rolled off me and went for Sive. I turned and scrambled off Molly’s bed.
I tripped over something lying on the floor. I crawled around in the dark and turned to see what I’d fallen over. There lying before me was Molly. Her eyes were open wide and glossy. Her head was twisted at an odd angle. I knew without touching her that her neck had been broken. Her white work dress had been ripped away from her body. Her breasts were exposed and from the looks of it, she may have been raped. I reached past her and pulled the sheet from the bed. I covered her body with it and slid toward the closet. I couldn’t fight it any longer. I threw up near the edge of her closet door.
When I was done I moved my hand up along the edge of the doorframe. My fingers glided over a cool metal pole. I pulled it out and looked down at it. I had forgotten that Molly liked to ski. I’d never gone with her on her trips, but when I saw the pole I made a promise to give it a try, if only for her memory. I picked it up and held it like a pole-vaulter would, waiting for the right moment to leap.
Payton still struggled with Sive. She thrust him aside. I had a clear shot of her chest. My hand went back to throw the pole at her. The door to the room burst open. Lucha stood there looking at me.
"To kill her is to kill your friend," he said.
I looked at Payton. He crawled across the bed toward me. My eyes went down to Molly’s sheet covered body. He looked down too and yanked the cover back. He fell before her and checked in vain for signs of life. Sive found this amusing and laughed. Her laugh had gone from sounding sexy to sounding like a cackle. I wanted to ram this pole through her. I wanted to pin her to the wall, spit in her face, and
gouge her green eyes out.
I looked at Payton. His hands were covered in Molly’s blood. He looked up at me. "She’s gone."
"I know," I said softly.
"Did I do this?" he asked. I couldn’t answer him, so I just looked away. He let out an ear-piercing scream. The ski pole was ripped from my hands. I looked up to see him charging at Sive. Lucha stepped aside to allow Payton a clear shot. He rammed the pole straight into her.
Her eyes moved to Lucha. "Lucha, my love..."
"Die knowing that you will not be missed, nor have you ever been loved," Lucha said with a slight smile upon his chiseled face.
I watched Payton fall to the floor clutching his chest. I ran to him, dropping to my knees, and cradling his head in my lap. He looked up at me and tried to talk. I put my fingers to his lips and kissed his forehead.
"I know ... you were her puppet. She did this, not you. I love you, Doc." I whispered to him. His blue eyes stayed on me. I kissed his forehead and heard the police sirens coming toward us. I looked up at Lucha. "Don’t let them find him here."
"He will be dead before they arrive," he said.
My face grew hot and my insides twisted with rage. "I know that he will! Don’t you think I know that I’m losing him? I don’t want them to find him here in this mess. The only thing he has left is his name. He was a good man, and I want to make sure he’s remembered that way."
"Do you really love him?"
I looked up at Lucha. "Yes."
"Then I shall do what I can." Lucha reached down and picked up Payton’s body. I kissed his cool lips and watched as Lucha went to the open window and stepped out with him. The fact that vampires could levitate and fly no longer caught me off guard. I nodded to Lucha and he left. I dropped to the floor and waited for the police to arrive.
Chapter 17
The house was streaked in red and blue. At least fifteen squad cars littered the street and they all had their lights going. I sat on the curb with a blanket wrapped around me, watching the bodies being removed from the house. The young police officer who had first arrived on the scene was bent over near the neighbor’s bushes. He had to be running out of cookies to toss. The police had found several more bodies on the front porch. I’m guessing that they were the vamps that Torin and Sive had brought. Torin wasn’t one of the dead and that scared the hell out me. I searched every one of the dead for Kerr. There was no sign of him. I assumed that he made it out all right. Why I was so worried about him was completely beyond me.
I sat there answering the detective’s questions quietly. My hands had finally quit shaking.
"Valerie!" I heard Dillon’s voice.
I looked up to see him searching around the perimeter for me. His eyes scanned the body bag that was in the process of being carried out and his face paled.
"Dillon!" I called out to him. He looked in my direction. His face lit up as he ran toward me. I stood up and let him hug me. The smell of his expensive aftershave filled my nose. For the first time in almost a year I was happy to smell that again. He whispered something into the top of my head. It took me a minute to make out the words "Thank God."
Dillon stayed with me as the paramedics did another check of me. I refused to go to the hospital. They said I was in shock, but until I passed out, they couldn’t force me to be treated. I heard someone calling my name. I looked and saw Joey running toward us. He looked around at all the squad cars.
"Valerie, where’s Molly?" he panted.
I looked up at the house. Two men in their early twenties were coming out of the house carrying a body bag. I looked at Joey. Our eyes locked and the reality sunk in. He crumbled to ground and sobbed. I went to him and wrapped my blanket around him. I rocked with him as he cried over losing her. I knew that he had loved with all his heart.
"She loved you too," I said softly to him. He held me close and cried. I looked down the street. In the crowd of gawkers, two in particular stood out. Guytano and Gregory stood side by side, watching from afar. I nodded to them and watched them back away. It wasn’t safe for them to reveal themselves to the world. No, the police were on a witch hunt now. They were convinced that a group of drug addicts had formed a satanic cult and believed themselves to be real vampires. I didn’t correct them. I thought it would help the people of this town sleep better if they could explain it away.
Epilogue
Molly’s house mysteriously burnt to the ground the day after the horrible instances took place. A few days after I found out about the fire I received a dozen red roses from Lucha. A box of matches took the place of a card. "Amore eternal" was written inside the cover. I smiled. He knew that I’d never wanted to be in that house again and now no one else would be either.
Gregory, as it turns out, is my mysterious tenant Mr. Douglas, and now has an even easier time keeping tabs on me. He swears that he didn’t plan for me to buy the home, it just happened. Gregory and I have been trying to get to know each other, again.
Guytano’s latest movie is on hold and I think he’ll be heading out soon. He says that he doesn’t want to leave--I know he’s lying. He loves what he does and I can’t blame him. He’s good at it. He told me that I could have his house. I wasn’t interested. He’s refusing to sell it. I think he’s only keeping it so he can come back and see me. We’ve become pretty good friends since the ordeal and his movie company, Vampyre Productions, is going to film a movie based on Valkyries. He’s even gotten Gregory to promise to help with factual details, not that the public would know if they lied or not.
I haven’t seen Lucha since the night of Molly’s death. He sends flowers on a regular basis but he doesn’t come around. I wish he would. All the death and violence is still fresh in my mind and losing Payton has left a hole in my heart. Lucha might hold the key to filling that, even if he is a vampire.
Guytano is impressed that Lucha thinks so highly of me. Guytano has told me stories he’d heard of the famous Linnea. I’m not sure how much I like her. I can see why Folco was afraid of me. I haven’t talked with him either. I didn’t expect that I would.
Kerr calls and stops in every now and then. I’m positive that he’s Lucha’s eyes and ears. That’s all right by me. He’s a nice guy and not too bad on the eyes either. He always seems like he has something on his mind, something he really wants to tell but he holds back. I’d ask him but every time I get within a foot of him, he takes two steps back.
Dillon and I haven’t made another go at it. He’s not pushing as hard anymore. I think he knows that I need space after losing the two most important people in my life. Joey helped me with the arrangements for Molly’s funeral. I think it gave him some sort of closure. I don’t think I’ll have closure until I get to see Camille’s body twitching after I ram a stake in her heart.
Dr. Payton Sullivan is still listed as missing with the local Sheriff’s department. I saw some people cleaning out his house the other day. I can’t say I blame them, I don’t think he’s coming back either. I never did find out what Lucha did with him. I have faith that he took care of Payton in his final few minutes on this earth. I have too. Somehow, I think that Lucha would do that, at least for me.
Camille has managed to disappear. Kerr thinks she’s gone for good. Guytano and I think she’s just waiting for the right moment to seek her revenge. I’ve had to try to live with the fact that I made her. She walks this earth as a demon with no conscious because I gave her the power to do so. I hope that I get the chance to take it away.
I’m struggling to accept who and what I am. No one seems to be able to put a precise label on me. For a time, I was one of them, a blood drinker, a vampire, and according to Gregory that shouldn’t have been possible. Word on the street is that this Valentino is not only a master vampire, but a sorcerer as well. I’m hoping that I don’t find out for sure what he is. I can’t handle any more excitement in my life right now. I’ll just be happy when I can sleep through the night again.
THE END
An UNEDITED excerpt from Immor
tal Ops by Mandy M. Roth, coming to New Concepts Publishing, June 2004!
Chapter 1
Peren Matthews sat there and listened to her friends yak away about their stressful weeks. She turned her green eyes to the window and stared out at the night sky. Her gaze flickered to the crescent shaped moon, and she had to fight the urge to trace the edges of it with her fingers. She’d always been obsessed with the wonders of night. As a small child she’d sit in her window and long to be among the stars. They seemed so peaceful, so free from care or concern. That had been what she wanted most as a child. Now, on her twenty-fourth birthday, she sat in the back of Melanie’s cramped Escort and tried to wish herself somewhere serene. She found little amusement in the fact that she’d come full circle.
She shifted awkwardly in the seat and pushed the pile of used tissues away from her feet. Melanie was far from a neat freak, and the lipstick stained tissues on the floor told her that Mel had a habit of tossing trash behind her as she drove.
Missy fixed her dark brown eyes on Peren and looked disgusted. "Girl, you need to lighten up--it’s your birthday."
Peren let a fake smile creep onto her face. Yeah, it’s so easy to lighten up. Kyle’s gone and he’ll never be back. It’s wrong to be celebrating with him not here. She tried to hide the emotions on her face, but Missy’s expression told her she failed.
She couldn’t get angry with Missy or Melanie. They were only trying to help. Since Kyle’s disappearance, they’d gone out of their way to try and help her deal with her loss and move on. "You need to climb back up on that dick again, darling ... that’s bound to make you feel better." Mel had told her this on more than one occasion. Sure, she still had the same desires as the next woman, maybe even more, but moving on was the last thing on her mind. She just wanted to go home, curl up, listen to sad music, and wallow. She didn’t need or want their planned interventions.
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