“Is Lena safe?” Charlotte asked with new worries battling behind her dark eyes. “I barely remember what happened as a wolf, but I think Logan and I defended her.”
Her last statement was nearly a question as she tried to recall what had happened as a wolf. Apparently, the full moon removed all restraint from the wolf inside and the human part was just along for the ride.
“From what Lena said, you two stood up for her when Eric tried one last time to change her into a werewolf and failed. The others started to run on the hunt, when I came and found Lena. When the pack noticed me with her, they came running back and you two and someone named Miguel interfered.
“What will happen to you three after this?”
Sighing, Charlotte sat up with her knees pulled up to cover herself at least partially. Nick chided himself for not offering his jacket sooner. The woman took it and stood as she wrapped herself in it. Unfortunately, being only slightly shorter than Nick, the jacket barely covered her upper thighs, but it was still better than running around naked.
He opened the duffle he had been carrying and pulled out a blanket for her brother. The blond was stirring and would be up soon. Walking towards him, the two continued talking.
“Thanks,” she said pulling the collar close and appearing to cuddle within the jacket. “I’m not sure what they will do to us, but I think we have officially worn out our welcome. It’s been a long time coming actually. Logan and I have been considering leaving the pack for awhile. Our beliefs differ from Eric’s and the others pretty much blindly follow him.”
Logan rolled into a crouch ready to attack at the sound of their footsteps approaching. Nick tossed the blanket to the man that was too tall for any clothes that he could offer from his own closet. “Who are you? What even?” the tall man asked as he wrapped himself in the blanket.
“My name’s Nick Steel. I’m what we call a voran.”
“A what?” the two asked in near unison.
“I’ll explain later. Do you think you can get your stuff back from the clearing or should we just leave to get to safety?” Another thought came to mind as well, “Can you werewolves transform so soon after the full moon, by the way?”
“Not too likely,” Logan said as he wondered about the idea of making it to the clearing. “Sorry, that’s an answer to both of your questions actually. The pack will be hard to get past, but if we hurry they might be too groggy to come after us if we’re quiet.”
“What about this, Miguel? Is he nearby also? Should we collect him?”
“Miguel stood up to Eric?” Charlotte asked wiping her hand through her lightly curled brunette mane. “That doesn’t seem like him. Why did he do that?”
“He and Ramon bonded with her,” Logan stated as he led the others towards the clearing quickly. “And you did too, I just backed you up.”
Nick let his senses fan out looking for activity amongst the other wolves. The sun was starting to crest the horizon, but the skeletons of the trees would block the direct light for awhile longer. Perhaps they had half an hour before it was bright enough to fully start waking the sleeping wolves.
Charlotte considered her words. “Do you think Eric would take him back, if he simply told him it was hormones that made him do it?”
“Probably, but he’ll be on Eric’s short list,” her brother answered. “I don’t think he wants to break from the pack. He just didn’t want to see the girl hurt. She would have made a good pet for him in his mind.”
His sister made a face that made her distaste about the idea known.
“Then we skip him?” Nick asked quietly feeling about with his sixth sense tentatively.
Logan nodded. They were getting close to the clearing and the wolf pack’s cars. The two hurried to where they had left their clothes and began pulling them on quickly. Charlotte threw on her shirt and pants and pulled on her boots. The rest she merely picked up to carry. Her brother quickly found that his shirt was missing.
“I think Lena took it,” Nick said quietly. A few of the werewolves deeper in the forest were beginning to move.
“Then let’s get out of here,” the taller man said sensing the same thing.
The three hurried down the path. Soon they made it to the SUV and started it up to leave immediately.
“Why did you come back for us?” Logan, who sat in the front seat, asked the voran.
Nick thought on the question briefly before he said, “I owed you and Lena worried over you two. She didn’t seem as concerned about Miguel, but I would have taken him as well, if you two thought he would want to come.”
“You took a big risk coming back though.”
“My girlfriend says I act like a white knight. She’s probably right. If I understand what my kind really is correctly, then we are nature’s equalizers. We’re strong and fast enough to fight vampires and werewolves with our own version of claws that can kill you, but I guess I, basically, take in strays. I don’t find killing for killing’s sake to be my way. There’s good and evil in most people. Just because you’re a werewolf or they are vampires, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a way to live in peace.”
“But vampires are bloodthirsty killers always after their next meal!” Charlotte exclaimed from the backseat. “How can there be anything good about them?”
“My blood can change them.”
“How so?” Logan asked first.
“A couple drops of my blood every few days keep a vampire from getting the urge to kill. They can eat and be nearly human. I work with a clan that hasn’t killed or turned a human in decades and that last time she turned a man that she believed would be her mate.”
“They have mates? But they’re dead, aren’t they?” Charlotte asked again as she leaned forward to stick her head through the seats between the men.
“Like I said, the clan is nearly human. They have emotions like any person. They eat, sleep and even love like any people. The clan may be immortal, but they’re nearly human.”
“It’s the nearly part that worries me,” Charlotte said before leaning back in the seat. She noticed the familiar streets around them and leaned forward again asking, “Where are we going?”
“Do you have any belongings at the house you want? Like your clothes, maybe jewelry and stuff?” Nick asked back.
He went to the second house thinking that he had felt them both there after Lena had been moved. At least Charlotte had seemed to move there with the girl, and he guessed that was where Logan had been sleeping.
The two ran inside to loot all the clothing they could get into a large suitcase each kept in their closets in case of emergencies. The pack had to be ready to move if they were exposed at a moment’s notice. It had been one of Eric’s rules; and they all kept suitcases in their closets just in case.
Nick walked into the house trying to keep his sixth sense focused as far towards the woods and the direction the other wolves would be coming as he could. The two werewolves were quick and the three were back in the car as the first vehicle carrying their old pack entered his field of perception. It was only a matter of blocks, but it didn’t matter as they drove off in the opposite direction.
Chapter 22- Cleaning Up
“Charlotte!” Lena cried out as the three entered Nick’s apartment. The girl launched across the room to give the werewolf a big hug. The tall brunette seemed pretty surprised by the display. They had been thrown together for only a matter of days, but apparently the bond the wolf had formed with the girl was mutual.
Waving to Logan over Charlotte’s shoulder and smiling warmly at the man who had defended her life, Lena greeted her brother almost as warmly. The man almost appeared shy in the face of such affection. Nick found he was a bit surprised as well, but simply closed the door to the hall and started to yawn.
It had been a long week for the voran and he hadn’t slept in just over five days. That was his usual limit though Nick had pushed it to eight days once or twice with his body forcing him to sleep by that point. He knew the yaw
n for the sign it was.
Letting go of Charlotte, Lena asked Nick, “By the way, where did Nicola go?”
Nick smiled and said, “I took her home before going out for these two. She needed a place to sleep during the day and it’s hard to beat your own bed for that.”
“I thought she was your girlfriend or something?” the girl questioned as she walked to his refrigerator to help herself to some orange juice.
“She is,” he replied noting the two werewolves looking over at the kitchen.
Logan’s stomach rumbled angrily. Noting the others’ looks at him, the man simply smiled politely and said, “Sorry. We haven’t eaten since yesterday. The pack went after a deer and left the three of us out of the hunt.”
“Help yourselves,” Nick stated with a wave to the kitchen. Another yawn brought the wave up to his mouth. It was definitely getting to the point where his body would not be ignored. It was nowhere near eight days, but he had also been in a few fights in the meantime.
Logan headed straight over to open the refrigerator and started looking for what might interest him. Pulling out some lunch meat and cheese, the man then tracked down the bread to make a sandwich. Charlotte was less distracted as she stood beside Nick.
“While I appreciate you taking us in, Nick, this apartment is a little small for four people. What are your plans for us?”
Another yawn nearly rocked him before he could answer, “Well, I don’t sleep very often, though I am going to need it today. When I’m not in need of my bed, I don’t mind lending it out and there’s a second bedroom. The couches are comfortable otherwise, but we could get in each other’s way in here.
“Beyond that I hadn’t totally thought about it. It’s temporary anyway. Once I’ve had some sleep, I’ll have to look into options, unless you had an idea?”
The woman looked uncomfortable having not given the idea much thought since the situation was only about five minutes old. A sudden soft smile hit her lips as she realized the ambush of her question on him so soon. “Maybe after you get some sleep it will come to one of us.”
He nodded. Waving to the others, Nick strode tiredly towards his room and the bed beckoning him there. “Give me a few hours and we’ll get back to it. For the moment, make yourselves at home.”
Lena had awoken with the sun. The new room had a comfortable bed. It was even a nice size being a queen.
Getting up, she was surprised at how easy it had been to fall asleep. Ten days with the werewolves, most of which were in the basement sleeping on the concrete floor in a cage, made finding sleep in a bed quite simple. It almost made her appreciate her stiff dorm bed waiting for her back at school.
Noticing the quiet, the girl adjusted her clothes that had twisted as she slept before calling out, “Hello?” Silence greeted her. The hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen was about the only noise in the entire apartment.
After exiting the room, she walked quietly to the door to his bedroom. It was still wide open and the bed was empty though it was not made. Someone had slept in it recently. A blond hair on the pillow caught her eyes from across the room. From that distance, Lena was surprised that she had spied it. Two things came to mind: her eyes seemed to be getting stronger and Nicola had probably slept in this bed.
A slight smile crossed her lips as she thought that the two must be an item. It slipped quickly as she thought about that. Her knight in shining armor was dating a vampire. Whatever that meant, it seemed at odds with the man who had risked death to save her. Why would he date a vampire and wouldn’t he be risking his own death constantly if she got hungry? The movies always had vampires killing from hunger uncontrollably. Nicola had said that his blood, a voran’s blood, helped get rid of a vampire’s hunger, but his cuts had made her change involuntarily. Was he really safe?
Sighing, Lena made her way out to the living room. No one was home.
She looked at the living room and kitchen combo. The apartment was a decent size, though not overly large. Nick had a couple couches set up in an L shape with a flat screen TV and some other gear in an entertainment center. It was very much a bachelor’s apartment. There were no girl’s touches on it that she could see. Apparently however long he had been dating Nicola, she had yet to impose any of her tastes on the place. Unless the vampire had decidedly non-feminine taste, Lena suddenly thought, since she knew almost nothing of the woman.
Tying her hair back in a tail, Lena moved to the kitchen to look for food. It wasn’t heavily filled, but at least the man was somewhat stocked unlike most of the boys she knew in college. Being pretty, Lena had been to more than one dorm room and apartment. By the college standard, her savior’s apartment was lavish.
Grabbing some shredded wheat and sitting at his bar style counter that separated the two parts of the room, Lena poured her milk while feeling the silence of the empty apartment. After two and half years of college and the time in the crowded werewolf houses, the silence was a strange new reality. In fact, Lena was only halfway through her bowl before the girl had to get up and turn on his surround sound system. The first disc in his player was some singer that was already dead. She wondered how old Nick really was based on his music collection alone. It ranged from music from as far back as the 60s all the way up to current times. After two more discs, the girl found something that would do.
Finished with breakfast before the disc was half over, Lena tossed her dishes in the dishwasher and went snooping around the apartment some more. First, she checked the bathroom and found that Nick had a spare toothbrush still in its packaging. Borrowing some toothpaste, the girl brushed her teeth and felt much fresher. He even had some deodorant that didn’t smell too masculine.
It was the little things like those that made Lena feel more human again. The days after her time in the cell had made her feel better, but with no eyes watching her movements and waiting for her to try and escape, she no longer felt a prisoner. Though Nick had asked her to wait at least a day or so before getting in touch with her family and friends, he didn’t hold her hostage. Lena felt free to go if she wished it.
Learning that she was more than human and that Nick was like her, the girl didn’t feel like trying to run back to her life just yet anyway. It seemed like so long ago that she had been studying in the school library for her upcoming tests and a term paper. Now she wasn’t just trying to learn of the world around her, but what she was as well. It was a daunting feeling. No one liked being different, a freak of nature. Though she always thought she had things about herself that she’d like to change about her looks, Lena now knew she was truly different.
By the time the first disc had ended, Lena could feel Nick returning and there were two more presences with him. Turning off the receiver, the girl was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement. Charlotte and Logan were safe!
Nick had been exhausted more than he realized. After a brief preparation for bed, the voran was asleep by the time his head hit the pillow. He didn’t even worry over the other three left to themselves in the living room.
Lena watched as Logan wolfed down a pair of sandwiches. The saying had new meaning for her now. Charlotte picked at a salad she had thrown together and Lena thought she looked uncomfortable. After being uprooted twice in three days, the werewolf looked like she had lost her center and was now adrift. Lena could understand. With college and the last two weeks, the girl had been a bit of a transient the last few years.
Noticing Charlotte’s attention had been diverted to her for awhile; Lena questioned her with a look.
The werewolf asked forgiveness with a slight smile. “Have you given any thought about what you are going to tell people about where you were?”
In fact, Lena had not and shook her head. The question should be simple, but what did you say about a kidnapping by werewolves and being saved by vampires? An answer with either in it would be followed by a straight jacket or a psychiatrist at the very least.
If she told the police of Nick’s involvement or the others,
what would happen? They could tell where the werewolves lived, but an attack by conventional police would not go well. If they could actually kill werewolves with normal bullets, then there would be a lot of dead werewolves, with the potential of the curse being transferred to others where it would get out most likely to the world.
Did she bring vampires into the discussion and have everyone looking for undead? The city, if not the world, would soon be in a panic looking for boogey men in their closets.
“What can I say?” she asked. “No one’s going to believe me if I said werewolves kidnapped me.”
She could feel the werewolves tense at her simple words. Charlotte quickly shook her head in protest. “You definitely can’t say something like that. Either they think you insane or they follow up on it and attack the pack. Either way ends badly. Eric and the pack will not go quietly. If they can change enough people to increase their numbers, especially if those numbers are the police, there will be an army of werewolves eventually.”
“Worst case scenario: the pack grows so large that the politicians try nuking the city and the surrounding suburbs trying to end the outbreak,” Logan stated coolly. “If Eric would actually uproot the pack and relocate to another city, things might not escalate, but lately he’s seemed unwilling to move. I’m not sure what’s been driving him. It’s not like I’ve ever been among his inner circle.”
Charlotte looked even more somber. “If word of you being in custody talking about such things came out, one of the pack or a vampire might show up to execute you before more damage could be done. The more bloodthirsty the vampire clan is the more likely they will have contacts within the police to help cover their tracks.
“Proving there is werewolves would make people believe other tales are true. Our kind does their best to keep our existence from getting out. I’m sure our enemies do the same.”
Sighing, Lena nodded at her words. She was in a bad position. Add to it that she wasn’t completely human herself and Lena might find herself on a lab table as well. No wonder Nick had cautioned her to wait before returning to her life. She would be a target if the creatures of the night felt she was a loaded gun aimed at exposing them.
Vorans and Vampires (Book 1): Voran the Night Guardian Page 18
