A little anger fueled the girl. Her terror of the vampire lost its edge after so many hours trapped together. “Leave me alone,” she said mostly to herself. The voice barely carried to the vampire, though it was loud enough for his ears.
He chuckled and for once there appeared to be true humor in it. “What’s that little mouse? I can’t hear you.”
“I said leave me alone!” she snapped in a near scream.
“And why should I do that? You’ve obviously been abandoned by the puppies. Were you hoping to become one? Maybe when I break out of here I’ll make you a vampire, wouldn’t that be fun?”
Lena shook with disgust. Fear was there too of course. Did the monster actually think he could escape or was he just messing with her? Lena didn’t know, but she felt the latter. He had been thrown in the cage after all. Of six vampires, only he was left besides. The man was a prisoner as much as she, but at least she might have value to their group. He was an enemy.
She nearly shivered at how easy it had become to think of them as a group that she might survive to join. The girl didn’t want to be a werewolf or a vampire. She just wanted to go home and be safe from the insanity. If only this was a sick nightmare.
A sudden slam as the vampire slapped his palm against the door of his cage startled Lena into looking again. He appeared to be contemplating just how hard it would be to break free. If the monster could, Lena had no doubt that he would kill her.
“Pretty strong,” he admitted, “but I think a determined vampire like me could break free. It’s a good thing they sound proofed the basement. I wouldn’t want them to hear me working on it.”
Those words signaled a flurry of blows aimed at the bar just one away from the locking mechanism. Boots kicked until one foot then the other apparently became too sore so he would switch to a fresh limb. Each blow seemed to accumulate damage. At first, Lena thought he was all talk, but with time she realized a couple things.
First, the cage was designed for werewolves who, though powerful, would be locked up in their first months when they couldn’t control the beasts within them. Such beasts would probably shake the cage and hit it, but not with the precision the vampire exercised. Second, he had declared himself determined and was proving to be so.
The bar was bending causing the door to warp. The force applied on the door caused the rest of the cage to start shaking. The shaking began to loosen dust from the wall it was mounted by as the movements, short as they were, began hitting the foundation. The movements began to translate into little jumps from the floor as the concrete and bolts began to give under the monstrous strength of the vampire.
Lena wondered how well the sound proofing would work if the wall was being struck. She felt tremors beneath her as the vampire continued to beat on his cage. How could the wolves possibly miss it?
Then another thought crept into the back of the girl’s mind. Perhaps they were testing the vampire and leaving her there to die? Maybe they had given up on turning her into a werewolf like the creature had said and were using her for bait.
Her nervousness must have shown as the creature paused a moment to look at her. “It’s weakening, girl. The question coming up for you is, do you want to become a vampire or his meal? Maybe the two of us could fight our way out or you could buy me the time to anyway?
“Apparently your hosts don’t care about you after all. I had been just saying that to scare you, pet, but it looks like it’s true. They’ve thrown you away.” He thought of something and chuckled. “Normally I would say you were thrown to the wolves, but ironically the wolves through you to me.”
More sick humor. Lena cringed watching his progress and thought he was right. The werewolves wanted to see him escape. There was a camera that watched the cage. Could they not see the vampire? Was he invisible like in the movies?
A violent scream of metal here, the crack of concrete there, it was the song of violence that was breaking down the cage. The man continued to smile in determination as his efforts produced more and more affect.
When the metal surrounding the lock finally broke, a wash of panic enveloped Lena. The girl knew she was dead, but she refused to just die without fighting back. Ramon had taken her unaware and she had been unable to fight back. Her attacker was there before her and she could see her death in his eyes.
Stepping calmly from the cage, the vampire stretched his back with an audible crack. The cruel smile was there and his eyes checked the stairway momentarily before returning to Lena. “You are lovely, girl. What is your name by the way? We were never introduced. I am Cairvall, Douglas Cairvall. My master sent me here to test these flea bags and they were stronger than I thought actually.
“Don’t tell them that though. I wouldn’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that. Oh wait, if you don’t join me and I simply kill you I guess that you won’t be able to tell them anyway.”
“Stay away,” she stated flatly. The girl stood with her back to the wall fists balled at her sides. Lena doubted she could even hurt this monster that had broken from a solid steel cage in just over an hour. His strength was unimaginable.
Again he laughed sadistically. “Brave now? It wasn’t so long ago that you wet yourself just from a look. Yes, I watched. Those pretty, tan legs of yours leading to the rest of you hidden by that shirt. If I weren’t more interested in your blood, I’d still want to eat you up.”
“Lena,” she said trying to change his mind.
“What?”
“My name is Lena.”
The man nodded. “Pretty enough for you, I suppose. It’s kind of sexy even.” He licked his lips as if to wet them, but the intention behind it chilled the girl. “Perhaps you’ll join me, Lena. All it takes is a little faith, mine in you, not yours. All you have to do is die a little then I feed you my blood to return you to the world. The question is do I think you’re worth it? I could simply kill you and escape through the window after all.”
“You could escape through the window without killing me too, Cairvall,” she said quietly. They both knew he wanted to kill her more than anything.
“True, I guess, but what’s the fun in that?” He noted the stairs one more time and looked at Lena once more with a nod. The vampire had decided and as he smiled coldly again, Lena knew she would be killed one way or another. Whether he turned her into a vampire afterward was still in the future.
In a near blink, Cairvall closed the distance. His eyes had turned white except for the pupils which seemed to shrink to small dots. His human smile revealed fangs lengthened to suck the life from the girl’s body. She tried to fend him off, but her fists felt like they were hitting stone. His teeth sunk into her neck. The pain caused her to scream.
Suddenly the vampire reeled back in surprise. “Your blood…” he began uncomprehendingly, “I’ve never tasted anything like it. It… it’s amazing. I feel like I am more alive than ever. I must have more!” His voice raised as the vampire lunged.
Lena felt dizzy from the blood loss, but she raised her hands to defend herself instinctively once again. She closed her eyes waiting for the pain once more as his teeth sunk into her. The pain didn’t come from her neck this time. The palms of her hands tingled. They became wet and then there was heat, as if from a bonfire, engulfing them, drying the water and scorching her arms and chest.
Opening her eyes, black spots speckled her vision as her body threatened to faint. To her surprise, Lena saw Cairvall no more. A pile of dust at her feet and blacked soot on her arms and bared body made no sense to the girl. The fire must have been real, but from what and where had the vampire gone? She looked at her hands covered in black char, but they didn’t hurt anymore than the rest of her did.
Confusion gave way to exhaustion and loss of blood as the spots grew larger. Darkness clouded her sight before Lena collapsed to the ground unconscious.
“What was that?” Aubrey asked in shock.
The wolves sat in front of the fifty five inch LCD TV with the screen split to show t
he two camera views in the basement. The broken cage, empty once the vampire proved himself the better of it, occupied one side of the screen. The other bore witness to a sight that confused them all. The girl had looked like she would be just another victim of the blood sucker when he sunk his teeth into her neck.
Eric had wondered if the girl could turn into a vampire. She obviously had been resisting the werewolf incursion for a week. They had scratched, bitten and even put some of their blood in her food to try and turn her. It had become her against them, whether Lena knew it or not. There could be nothing other than their nemesis, the vampire, that could avoid becoming the wolf, but this girl had.
Now a vampire sank his teeth into her neck and appeared for all the world that he would drain her dry. Would he be able to turn her? Eric was curious. He might try or simply kill her before trying to escape, but he pulled back. The camera didn’t catch his face. It was digital so he was seen even if the image was a bit blurry, but he faced the girl as did the camera.
The camera showed her face, dazed but alive. The vampire seemed to be very animated as he talked to her. Eric wished that they had audio. Werewolves fighting a cage didn’t warrant it, so there were no microphones to tell him what they had spoken about during the night or in the morning as the creature broke free.
When the vampire went on the attack a second time, the girl put up her hands to ward him off and Eric could see that she had little enough energy to fight him. When dual flashes of silver lanced from her hands into the vampire’s chest, the wolf had leaped from his chair sending it sprawling behind him. The silver blades pierced the vampire straight through him and a moment later he went up in a blaze of fire that nearly engulfed the young woman.
When the camera could see the girl again, she was covered in the ash of the vampire and nothing else. Her hair was mussed but the flames had done nothing to burn any of it or her skin away as far as he could tell from the picture.
“Am I the only one seeing this?” Miguel asked in amazement despite the others all reacting around him.
“She killed him with something,” Vanessa stated quietly with her eyes big as saucers.
“Not only that, but she did it when she was nearly out on her feet,” Lex stated admiringly. “I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t try to kill her. You think it’s some instinctual power that went off when she was threatened? She never showed us any of that when we tried to turn her.”
Vanessa nodded as she added, “Maybe scratching and biting her didn’t push her to that point, but what does that make her? I’ve never even heard of something like that.”
“Movies and books only guess at the monsters out there,” Eric said quietly. “Werewolves and vampires are common enough that someone must have seen enough at one point to start the rumors that became legends. If she’s something rarer, maybe no one knows of this. She could be a mutant otherwise I guess. Who knows where this kind of power comes from, since she still looks and smells human?”
“What do we do with her now?” Aubrey asked worriedly.
“Well the first thing we need to do is have her cleaned up. Maybe we can figure her out by getting her to join us. We may not be able to make her a werewolf, but she can still join the pack. If we can help her figure out those powers, she could help us kill a lot of vampires.”
The idea changed the feeling in the room quickly. Eric once again thought of how simple much of his pack actually could be. He didn’t mean to manipulate them most days, since they just followed his lead because he was pack leader. It made for good soldiers, if not exactly the most creative of sorts. The fact that he couldn’t possibly leave such a weapon in their midst with the potential to kill the pack, never occurred to them at all.
It was decided and the wolves were onboard once Eric stated his idea. They would have the girls go down and help Lena upstairs to the bathroom to clean her up in a nice bath. His werewolf nostrils could barely tolerate her stink anymore anyway, so it was just as well. Once she was cleaned up they would put her in some comfortable clothes most likely from Charlotte’s closet.
The full moon was only a few days away. They would befriend the girl and try to make her want to be with them. If she couldn’t be brought on board, then the hunt would remove her from worry. Defeating one vampire was nothing if the pack were to turn on her. After all, they had killed five with only half their number. The wolves would all be there for the hunt.
Eric shook his head. He was going to the worst case scenario, before they had even tried to seduce her. He hoped to keep this weapon for himself. They had no idea if her powers could harm werewolves, but she had never done so up to now. The vampire had been an instinctual kill. Perhaps her kind hated vampires as much as his own did.
Looking at the girl’s image on the TV, Eric wondered how this was going to play out.
Chapter 13-Redemption
The morning news played on the TV and was half ignored until an especially close story played out. As usual, it had been playing in the background. The voran had worked out early knowing Geni was coming to clean, so he wanted to get it out of the way. The girl didn’t need him getting in her way while she cleaned the place.
Breakfast was poured into a bowl. Milk was added to help wash down a helping of shredded wheat. He didn’t know if vitamins were truly as critical to a voran’s metabolism, but he had always tried to keep himself fit. His night activities made the need for a healthy body more necessary after all.
By the time Geni arrived, he was just finishing the bowl as he checked the latest status on the werewolf cell phones. The girl was still a bit down with her friend missing yet. Nick wanted to be ab0le to give her good news, but he hadn’t gotten a strong enough sense of what had happened to Lena to assure her. The fact that werewolves were involved and may even be from the same pack that he and Nicola had run into would have been great news if he could have confirmed that the mystery presence was indeed Lena’s. He may not have expressed the knowledge involving the creatures of the night to the girl, but there were words that could’ve been used if he were sure.
“Hey, Nicky, any news on Lena?” the pretty blond asked turning her green eyes on him. She was hopeful, but not overly so.
Smiling a reassuring smile, Nick said, “I think I may have a lead, but I don’t want to get your hopes up just yet. I need to do some follow up today.”
“Really?” the girl asked blinking in surprise. “You think you can find her and get her back alive?”
Knowing he needed to curb her emotions, while not moving her to despair, Nick picked his words carefully, “If my trail leads me to her, I’m sure the police will be able to get her out safely.” He couldn’t actually use the police if werewolves were involved, of course. It would be a blood bath that no one would win, since such a public attack would reveal werewolves to the world. Nick would have to handle the matter himself along with Marek and any support his friend could give. It would be a tricky enough thing he feared.
It was at that time that he caught a few words from the TV that drew his attention back to the broadcast. He held up his hand before Geni could interrupt and backed it up with his DVR box. There it was. An unusual amount of activity in Beverley and the same street Nick had checked out only two days ago. He ground his teeth angrily for not pushing to try and get into the house right away.
The report was sketchy at best and Nick was surprised that it even made the news. Shouting, people fighting around a house, unexplained bursts of fire and the police weren’t commenting on it which merely raised more questions. Nick’s worst fears were on the verge of being realized. The werewolves were nearly exposed.
An interview with a brown haired, white male, where the man gave vague answers that still sounded like they gave content, narrowly avoided showcasing the unusual inhabitants of the house. If police were to investigate inside the building, what would they find? It was all happening right where he believed the girl might be.
“Nick? Is there something wrong?” Geni asked after
the story ended. The man had looked very thoughtful after it had ended, since he now had to worry over more than just the lost girl.
Shaking his head, Nick answered, “It’s nothing to worry over, Geni, though I think I may have to delve into the story a bit myself.”
“That story?” the girl asked in surprise. “Somebody shooting off fireworks and disturbing the peace is going to make you go and investigate it? Isn’t that a little weak to worry over when you’re trying to find, my friend?”
The girl’s worry had made her nearly snap. Tears were being barely held back in her eyes. She had trusted that he was working on her friend’s disappearance and now she thought he didn’t care. Nick couldn’t be completely forthcoming without setting her off, he feared. As gently as he could, the man said, “Trust me, I am not forgetting your friend. This story may actually have something to do with her disappearance. I have had some clues that were leading me to that area, so I need to do more digging and either rule it out or confirm the lead. I don’t want the trail to go cold, so I am going to check it out right away.”
Geni looked dubious, but she trusted him. “I don’t know how it fits in, but I’m sure you know what you are doing.”
He doubled checked the movement on the werewolf phones. There had been unusual amounts of traffic between the primary and secondary site. His hunter’s instinct told him they might move the girl tonight. The question of whether he could intercept the move or even should became foremost in his mind. The full moon was coming soon and that might provide a better distraction, but could he afford to wait.
It was time to stake out the werewolves and not just do a run by to try and determine things. Daylight was not ideal, but then again their senses were just as strong at night.
His mind was made up quickly and he grabbed what he felt would be needed throughout the day. His vampire back up couldn’t be relied on until the sun set and darkened the sky. It would be all him until this evening and that didn’t thrill him.
Vorans and Vampires (Book 1): Voran the Night Guardian Page 10
