Aubrey couldn’t move her eyes from the sight. They were defeated. Two werewolves against a well trained man and they were broken and felled. The sight had caused so much shock to the girl that a vampire had tasered her. The humiliation was complete.
The three were all pulled to the side and into the snow away from the drive path. Their attackers had actually not only defeated them, they had been merciful enough to leave them alive and safely moved to the side albeit in snow.
The female vampire loomed over Aubrey after being moved to the side. She smiled down on the werewolf. “Well, that could have gone better for you, huh?”
Pointing the taser at her once more, Aubrey was forced to endure another heavier jolt of electricity. The voltage left her so dazed, Aubrey never noticed the girl walk away.
The silver sports car spun its rear wheels in the snow forcing Nick to reduce power. It was slick out, but he could take his time now. He felt the woman next to him looking his way. Her gaze would look into the snow only to return after a few seconds.
“Dinner?” she asked.
Nick’s eyes glanced to her in surprise. “Really?”
Nodding, Nicola added, “I would assume that you’ve worked up a bit of an appetite after that.” She chuckled dryly, “They never knew what hit them. Even I was surprised at how easily you handled them. I think you broke the big one. I still can’t believe you broke a werewolf’s arm and then knocked another out with your bare hands.”
“They underestimated me. I guess they couldn’t smell that I was different from a normal man. It certainly gave me an edge.”
The girl laughed next to him. It was a laugh showing both humor and a release of the worry caused by the werewolves trying to intimidate her. “Well I suppose that werewolves and vampires have a certain scent because we’re made into something other than human. How did you become the way you are?”
Nick shrugged. “I was born this way as far as I know. Whether something happened to my mother or it was passed to me from another, I have no idea.”
“So your condition is more or less natural. I can sense you in a crowd because I’ve tasted your blood and am familiar with your scent, but I suppose if I didn’t know you, I might believe you were just a human also,” she admitted.
Nodding, Nick added, “That may be why I can smell a vampire or werewolf now that you mention it. They aren’t natural. The werewolves smell of the woods and animal. Most vampires do smell of blood and… death.” He winced hoping that being so candid wouldn’t hurt her with his words. Nicola, along with Marek and the rest of their clan were all trying to avoid the blood and killing that most vampires would fall into without his blood to sustain them.
He heard her sigh before she asked, “Do I smell like that also? I know I’m a vampire and have to take at least a little of your blood, so do I smell of blood and death like the others. That rogue from the other night for example, do I smell like that?”
Taking a deep breath, he thought about the scent of Nicola. Her perfume was vanilla and the strongest of the scents in the car. The slight smell of his own blood seemed to come not just from her mouth, but from her skin as well. To his overly acute sense of smell, it was almost a fragrance like the perfume. The third main scent could only be classified as that of the undead. It was muted compared to the rogue, but the voran could still sense it.
With a smile on his lips, he said, “I mainly smell vanilla, if that helps. The rogue reeked of the blood he spilled and his undead scent was pungent to my nose. I never really thought about the scent on you until I looked for it.” It was the truth. Their smell was familiar to him and far different from those rogues on the street.
Whether Nicola noticed the omission of blood or not, she said, “Well, I guess that’s good. I still smell vampire enough for those wolves to find me in a mall though. I guess we can never completely get away from what we are.” Looking at Nick as he drove on the snowy road, the girl asked, “Do you ever wish that there was a full cure? Would you be my boyfriend for real then, Nicky? Am I better off being as I am though since I would probably be dead if I had never ran into Marek? You know that I am about a century old, right?”
“You don’t look a day over twenty-one,” he tried to joke. “I bet you’d be carded at all the bars if you went to any other than the Lair.”
“Hmm, true and, of course, you look like you’re just in your twenties also. How old are you now?”
“Older than you. I guess you’re dating an older man. Am I robbing the cradle?” he laughed at the bad joke.
The girl smiled, replying, “I think you’re dodging the question, but fine, old man. I guess you will always be the older man unless you find a voran or vampire older than you?”
Nodding, Nick said, “Other than one voran I know, I haven’t met any others older than I am. I wonder if any of the werewolves live as long. Unlike the company of vampires that I keep, I have much less true knowledge of werewolves.”
Nicola shrugged. “I can’t help you much either. We ran into a werewolf and it attacked us thinking that Marek was alone. Apparently, that wolf was much less talented than the ones we ran into and Marek put it down before the rest of us had to intervene.”
“It could have been a newer one. Marek told me of the fight and he made it sound like the wolf never really had a chance against him. Though I managed to take out these two, it wasn’t a completely fair fight since I’ve been training in various martial arts to be able to fight against more powerful creatures than I am. I’ve got decades of practice.
“Those two were mostly brawlers. They were strong but not using any technique. That type I can always beat no matter their strength.”
“Speaking of which, why didn’t you want to kill them?”
“Dead werewolves would give us no information. Alive we can track them and learn more about this pack.”
The girl put out her hands begging understanding. “I don’t get it. How are we tracking them now? We let them go and drove off.”
Smiling, Nick replied, “I have my ways. It’s what I’ve told you and Marek over the years. Modern technology could be the end of you. I wrote down their cell numbers and I have a couple ways of letting their signals track them for me.”
“You what!?”
Chuckling, he added, “Trust me. I have my ways. Being as old as I am has given me skills and contacts that give me even more of an edge.”
Folding her arms, Nicola sniffed with annoyance. “Cell phone tricks? That’s how you’re going to find a pack of werewolves? That seems like kind of a letdown. I thought you were going to let me in on some voran secret.”
“Voran secret?” Nick simply laughed at the idea. “I hardly think I am that mysterious. I simply have too long of a history to tell everything about myself. I also think just talking for the sake of talking does little but waste time.”
Changing the subject, Nicola simply said, “There’s a good restaurant at the next exit. Thanks to your blood, I actually have a decent sense of taste so I think you’ll like it too.”
With a nod, Nick steered his car onto the exit.
Chapter 8- Licking Wounds
Sunlight came through a frost edged window into Nick’s apartment. The droning sound of the TV was being ignored as he looked at his laptop screen. The program he was using wasn’t strictly legal. Technically, it was a government program used by the FBI to monitor cell phones and their activity. He had made a contact within the organization several years before and had called in a favor to get the program. The agent knew what he hunted, and had been someone Nick had saved from a vampire in fact.
His guarding of the night had brought him into contact with a few police and FBI along the way. His background as a reporter had found other in roads with many of the same. With a gentle use of the resources his allies had, Nick found he could use his pull when it was necessary with little resistance.
A key fumbled in the door and Geni entered for her morning work. “Hey, Nicky,” came the familiar greeting,
but the girl’s voice came a bit restrained.
“Good morning, Geni, is there something wrong?”
Her eyes opened a bit wide in surprise. Taking off her jacket and hanging it on the rack, the young blond asked, “I say hello and you’re asking me what’s wrong already? That was quick.”
Turning on the couch to look at the girl, Nick noted eyes that looked tired. Makeup hid dark circles he bet, though she was young and maybe her skin wouldn’t show that she hadn’t been sleeping enough after just a few days. “You’re not your usual self. I could tell with just two words. What’s wrong? You seem tired. Exams?”
The girl sighed. “I wish,” she said. “No, actually I am worried. A friend of mine named Lena seems to have disappeared from the campus. A couple people had seen her at the library near closing time and then none of her other dorm mates said she ever came home that night. It was two days ago.”
“Do you have a picture of her?”
The girl’s eyes had been looking at the floor, but they whipped up to look at Nick quickly at the question. “Well, yeah, in my purse,” she said of the little blue purse that matched her jacket. “Why? I thought you were just a broker and a semi-retired one at that.”
As Geni brought her purse to the couch, where Nick sat with his laptop still showing a map of the two cell phones’ paths laid out for his perusal, she fished out her own cell phone. The girl didn’t even glance at the laptop as she sat down. Her light pink blouse was wrinkled, which was unlike the girl who always seemed fresh out of a salon, even when cleaning up after him.
“Here,” she said handing her phone over to him.
“I’ve done more than just brokering. I’ve also been a part time reporter, so I have some contacts through the paper that may help. I assume that someone’s reported her absence to the police?”
“The school has, yes.” Sighing again, the girl lay her blond head on his shoulder as the two looked at several pictures on her phone. It was a face that seemed somehow familiar to him, he thought absently.
Nick couldn’t believe the timing. With the whole werewolf thing and his vision, he wasn’t sure he had time to add something else to his plate, but Geni was more than a cleaning lady to him. She was a friend.
Taking a minute to transfer the images onto his laptop for reference, Nick began to ask questions about the missing girl. Several minutes later, he was checking for information on the situation in a few databases that he was probably not supposed to know about. Again his contacts might be useful for the missing person’s reports and the like, but he wondered if it was natural causes making for the disappearance or were the creatures of the night a part of this as well. He had been dealing with their like for so long, Nick nearly felt like almost every missing person could eventually be attributed to them, but the truth was far from that. The amount of crimes committed by vampires and werewolves in the area was relatively few compared to the humans own criminals.
Geni had started cleaning up even though he could tell her heart was barely into it.
“You must have had a pretty good night last night,” Geni said as she picked up a fallen shirt.
“How so?” he asked while keeping his attention on the laptop.
“Well, I can smell vanilla perfume on your jacket and you still have a little lipstick near your lips, unless you’ve started a new look. You have a date?”
“I went shopping with a friend and then to dinner with her. It wasn’t a very late night actually,” he answered omitting a run in with werewolves. The night had ended not long after dinner in fact. Nick had driven Nicola back to the Lair shortly afterwards and returned home to follow up on the cell phone tracking of the werewolves.
“Oh, just a friend?” the girl inquired sounding a bit happier as she tried to pry into his life.
“Mostly,” was his reply.
Geni came back to the couch to sit Indian style, her bare feet tucked beneath her. “A friend with benefits maybe? Come on. I need detes.”
The man laughed briefly as he answered, “There aren’t that many details. I went with my friend Nicola to Woodfield Mall to shop for some clothes for her and then we went to dinner at Antonio’s on the way home.”
“Who’s home?” she asked fluttering her lashes.
“Hers and she lives with other people so it was a drop off of her and the packages. I only went in briefly.”
The girl smiled and asked one last question, “Girlfriend material?”
Sighing, Nick replied merely, “Friend. I certainly enjoy her company, but just a friend.”
Making a face, Geni stood back up to return to her cleaning, “Meh, that’s no fun. How was dinner? I’ve never been to Antonio’s. I’ve heard it’s nice, but a bit pricey; which is another reason a starving college girl can’t go there.”
“It was good enough,” he answered noncommittally. His eyes had gone back to looking at the map of the werewolves’ movements. The cell phones seemed to be working so far and the creatures most likely had no idea that he had turned them against their owners. Not only were their movements shown, but how long they remained in one place. The latter information could lead to the voran finding their primary haunts. If he could find the pack, then he was likely to find the girl from his vision.
After several minutes of studying the map, he went back to the cell phone pictures from Geni’s phone. As he blew up the picture of a pretty brunette with her dark, curled hair and equally dark eyes, Nick suddenly realized why the girl seemed so familiar. It was the face from his vision.
The night of the mall fight saw three beaten werewolves pull themselves up from the snow, chastened and humiliated. A human had beaten two of the pack’s more powerful males. To Aubrey’s eyes, it had appeared very easy for the mystery man and that had worried her to uselessness.
The taser’s paralyzing affects had worn off the woman shortly after the vampire had driven off. The thought of chasing after them was not even slightly on her mind as Aubrey struggled to her knees and then feet. The electricity left her a bit dazed even as she started to look after her pack mates.
Slapping Lex across the face none too gently, the male awoke with a start from unconsciousness.
“What the hell?!” he exclaimed rubbing at his jaw. Unfortunately for him, Aubrey had struck the same side that had knocked him out. A werewolf could heal pretty quickly but the pain was still fresh and heightened by her slap.
The woman was looking at Chan before Lex could get a reply. The big man didn’t look too good to her eyes. Being more gentle, Aubrey slapped the broken wolf with less vigor than their third. It took longer to wake him and he was almost instantly aware of the pain from his dislocated shoulder and possible broken arm.
“You want us to try and reset it?” the girl asked Ray Chan.
The man nodded eyes looking pained.
Lex set his jaw grimly as he first tested the shoulder with his fingers causing the other man to bite his lower lip. Nodding that he was pretty sure of himself, he set a knee against the larger man’s chest before grabbing on with both hands to the upper and lower arm. The yank made Chan scream in pain. The normally stoic Asian attitude was gone in an instant as the humanity of the werewolf revealed itself in pain.
Given a little time, the three dragged themselves back to the SUV they had driven to the mall.
The beaten look of the three caused their housemates from the pack a lot of alarm and near frenzy took them over.
“How the hell did this happen?” Eric, the pack leader and owner of the house nearly screamed at the disheveled wolves. Being werewolves, it wasn’t in their nature to be the most neat of creatures, but this was a new low.
It was Lex that found his voice first, though Aubrey had tried to stammer something out. The woman still hadn’t recovered her confidence. Despite his humiliating defeat, Lex still remained strong as he revealed, “We ran into a vampire…”
“A vampire!” their leader exclaimed loudest of the gathered wolves. Five others were in the living room
of one of three houses the pack currently rented in a very close area to one another. They were all in an uproar at the knowledge of a vampire attack.
“Yeah, Eric, just the one with a human male. The man fought like a professional with strength that seemed unnatural to me.”
“What about the vampire?” Vanessa, another of the pack’s females asked dismissing the talk of a human as easily as the three had earlier, much to their dismay.
Aubrey spoke up wanting to make the point that the vampire was the least of their concerns as she said, “It was a single girl. She didn’t even bother to fight. Her male was fast and strong and very well trained. We don’t even know if the girl could fight.”
Eric had not dismissed the human defender as easily as some of the others, who had simply heard the word vampire and lost focus. “Did he smell like he had been partially turned into one of their thralls? Was he enhanced by their blood?”
Exchanging glances, the three looked unsure.
“He seemed human until he moved,” Ray spoke up still holding the wounded arm across his stomach. He had told them he was pretty sure that his arm wasn’t broken, but his shoulder was still messed up pretty badly.
Aubrey and Lex nodded as one with his words. The girl added, “He moved like he was a vampire, but he smelled human. The vampire’s stink was on his clothes and skin, but didn’t seem a part of him. I don’t know what he was, but he could fight and he was strong.”
“You said that already,” the head of the pack said angrily taking a seat in his favorite chair. “Did you smell anything unusual about him at all?”
The three shook their heads. If they had at least sensed something, maybe they could have avoided walking into a trap.
“You think a man could train to be that fast?” Lex questioned the air thinking of the fight. “I don’t know if he was vampire fast, but his reflexes were definitely unusual. When I went for the vampire girl, he cut me off at a full lunge.”
Vorans and Vampires (Book 1): Voran the Night Guardian Page 6
