“Hello?”
He starts to melt just hearing her voice, and has a hard time responding.
“Hello? Is anybody there?”
“Yeah, hey, it's Namon. Sorry if I am bothering you...”
“Hey! I am so happy to hear from you. My gig was canceled because of what happened last night. So I can't see you Friday, but hey, wait a minute. How did you get my number, anyway?”
“It's on your poster at Whiskey River. So you do parties?”
“Yeah! Not really for the money, but just for the singing. I love to sing,” she says gushingly.
“So let me ask you, are you doing anything today?” he asks.
“No, I don't have anything going on at all. I’m just sitting around here being bored.”
“Do you want to meet me for lunch or something?” he asks.
“Yeah, how does the Waffle House sound? I love their All-Star Breakfast special,” she says.
“That sounds good to me, which one?”
“Well there is one really close to me on the south end of Riverside, close to Wilmington manor,” she suggests.
Namon's heart starts to beat faster, hearing that name, and knowing that she lives so close to Cyrus. This is going to be a big risk seeing her so close to where his enemy lives, but he has to do it.
“I will be there in about ten minutes.”
“I can't wait to see you there.”
They both hang up, and Namon heads that way.
Aluana excitedly heads out the door, and bumps into Tiffany on her way out.
“Sorry, I didn't know you were out,” she says.
Tiffany notices the smile on her face, and stops her.
“Where are you going?” she asks.
“I have a lunch date with a really cute guy. Looks like we both get to have a happy story, don't we, Tiffany?” Aluana says with a smile. “You have Cyrus and I may wind up with this guy.”
Tiffany feels her heart twist hearing Cyrus's name. Yeah, happy story my ass, she thinks.
“I'm happy for you.”
The other thing that pops into Tiffany's mind is the fact Aluana was dancing with a werewolf last night, and that has to be who she is talking about. Tiffany keeps this to herself, and just smiles at her.
“Well, you have fun, and give me details later.”
Aluana nods as she gets into her car and drives off.
Tiffany no longer wishes to hold any allegiance to Cyrus. She will show him who the pawn is, and who is not important. She searches the mansion grounds for Drake, and when she finds him, she will have the answers that she seeks. Doesn't take long, and she finds him meditating outside, so she slowly approaches him.
“Why does Cyrus want the wolf?” she asks bluntly.
Drake's eyes flash open when he hears her demanding question.
“You have seen this wolf? Where is he?”
“I’m not telling you a damn thing until you tell me what he wants with him. I heard what the two of you were talking about, and I will show you both who is disposable. I have the information you two want, and I demand to know what is going on.”
Drake rolls his eyes and sighs.
“The wolf has the amulet. That is why we are looking for him. Aluana has one of the rings, and Cyrus has the other, so all he needs is the amulet itself. He can use it to bring Galamythe into this world.”
“So how loyal are you to Cyrus? Do you really think he will treat you any different than anyone else once he has control of the dragon?” Tiffany asks.
“I am no fool. What is it that you are asking of me?”
“What would you want to do if you had control of Galamythe yourself?” she asks.
“Nothing near what Cyrus has in mind,” Drake says with a smirk.
“So if I were to deliver the completed amulet to you, would you help me?” she asks.
“I want to take away everything that Cyrus desires and make him suffer. He took away all of my dreams, so I will take away his.”
“So what can I do to help you?”
Back at Waffle House, Namon pulls into the parking lot and sees Aluana sitting in a booth by the window. His heart begins to beat hard because he's not looking forward to telling her that he cannot see her again. His head begins to hurt, trying to figure out what to tell her and how to explain it. He parks his motorcycle and walks inside, taking his helmet off along the way. Once inside, he slides into the booth across from her, and smiles at her. It is difficult to look at her, and not smile. The waitress comes over and asks for their order, Aluana orders her All Star Breakfast, and Namon decides to have the same. Both of them have coffee with sugar and cream to drink. Once the waitress walks away, Aluana looks at Namon with a very big grin on her face.
“I have got to say that I very much enjoyed my time with you last night. I am glad that you found a way to get in touch with me because I didn't want to wait until Friday to see you even if Whiskey River was open.”
Hearing her go on about how much she enjoyed spending time with him has all, but broken his will and he is moments away from not telling her he cannot see her again. She bats her eyelashes at him, and he becomes lost completely as he looks into her eyes.
“You are so beautiful.”
She smiles at the compliment, reaches across the table, and takes his hands into hers.
“That is a very sweet thing for you to say.”
Namon looks down at her hands, which are folded over his, he freezes when he sees the ring on her finger. One of the rings to the amulet is right in front of him.
“Where did you get that ring?” he asks.
She looks down at the ring. “I have had that for as long as I remember. Why do you ask?”
“That ring is one of two rings.” He leans in closer and talks low so no one else will hear him. “My mother had one, and was buried with it.”
Aluana looks insulted as it seems like he was implying something.
“I assure you this has been my ring since long before your mother was buried.” She covered her mouth as soon as she said that because that gave a little indication of her age.
“I didn't say you did, I know who stole it.” He leans in again. “Someone that works for Cyrus Wilmington; Wait a minute what do you mean that ring has been yours since before she was buried?”
The waitress brings their food to them, and Aluana draws her hands back so that there is a place for the plates to be set. After the waitress walks away, Aluana looks at Namon, not to sure what to say. Here he is saying that Cyrus had done something bad, the same Cyrus that has protected her for so long. Granted, he has also kept her prisoner for most of that time as well. How well does she really know Cyrus? After all, he is always gone on his “business trips”. Then there are the secret meetings he keeps having with the strange man with the bald head.
“How do you know it was Cyrus?” she asks.
“Well, you pretty much have an idea of what I am, right?”
She mouths the word “werewolf.”
“Yes, well, sort of. Well, Cyrus is not what a lot of people think he is.”
He looks around to see if anyone is paying attention to their conversation before picking up his fork and knife. He cuts into his waffle, and dips the bite into syrup.
“So how familiar are you with the movie Dracula?” he says, and then takes a bite.
“Are you suggesting?”
He nods his head.
“How could you know all of this?”
“My godmother taught me, and I have lots of books with detailed information of what's known of him and many other creatures. Like the demons that attacked me the other night.”
Aluana starts eating her food as well, but chews slowly as she listens to him. She's not sure what to believe, but her heart wants so badly to believe him. For so long, she has longed for someone that she felt she could love, and he had fit the bill until now. So many questions enter her mind, and her head starts to hurt. Great, more questions. As if, I didn't have enough of them already.<
br />
“He murdered my godmother trying to get to me when I was seventeen. He also murdered my mother and father when I was young. So I am not a big fan of his, as you can tell. Then there is the fact of what will happen if he gets his hand on the amulet he is looking for. If he has both rings, he plans on doing something very bad.”
A thought now enters Namon's mind that he wished didn't. That night when he and Katrina fought the sorcerers' zombies, Drake had said Cyrus now had all, but one artifact to make the amulet complete. That is when Namon connected the dots, and his heart breaks. Aluana has a ring that looks just like his mother's and she said she has had it way longer.
“Could she be a vampire? Is she in league with Cyrus?” he thinks to himself not wanting to believe that, even though all the signs point to it. Although, why would Cyrus keep her around, and let her hold on to the ring? He mouths the question, Are you a vampire? She nods yes, and reaches for his hand. Surprising to him he doesn't withdraw. Here she was, a vampire, and he didn’t want to kill her. Once she touches him, he has a vision just like he does at random times, only this vision is different. Instead of seeing what happened in her past, he sees what could happen in her future. He is standing outside in what looks like Washington Park, and is dressed in a tux. Brice is standing next to him wearing one as well. Then Namon looks over and sees Aluana in a wedding dress, walking slowly in his direction. He expects the vision to turn into a nightmare just like most of his other visions, but strangely enough, it ends happily with them saying “I do,” and kissing one another.
Aluana, though, is not so lucky. Her head starts to hurt and she puts her hand on her forehead like you would if you got brain freeze. She sees a memory from right before she became a vampire. There are several knights in full body armor around, holding the doors to her room from the inside. She stands behind them trembling, frozen with fear. The doors are knocked down by a massive creature that looks like it's made of stone. Drake enters the room right after the creature, and several vampires flood into the room with him and slaughter the knights as if they were defenseless. Two of the vampires pin her down to the floor, and then Cyrus enters the room. He straddles her, and then she snaps out of the vision by Namon shaking her.
“Are you all right?” he asks.
“No, I am not.” tears welling up in her eyes, “I believe you. I think maybe we should go.”
Namon waves at the waitress and asks for the check. He pays for their meals. Aluana stands up leaving her purse with her car keys, credit cards, and all her personal identification on the seat of the booth, and he clasps her hand as they exit the restaurant. That is where Aluana tells him what she saw.
“He lied to me for so long. He always told me he turned me to keep me from dying, that he had been protecting me for so long because I was important for some reason. I didn't have a single memory of my life before I became a vampire until now, and the first memory I have reclaimed is of Cyrus changing me, and now the first memory I have negates everything he's ever told me-I wasn't dying. He changed me for some other reason.”
She starts crying, and Namon hugs her, pulling her closer to him and allowing her to cry into his chest.
“I don't think it's safe for you to go back,” he says.
“I do not have anywhere else to go.”
“You can come with me, and stay. I'll protect you, and I will make sure nothing happens to you.”
She looks up at him with her eyes red.
“You didn't eat my sister or anything like that before I became a vampire, did you?” she says with a slight laugh.
“No, I'm only twenty-one. I promise.”
She never did know what to expect from Cyrus, but when she hears the words “I promise” coming from Namon, she believes them, and she knows he will protect her. He hands her the helmet.
“So what is one thing that you wish you could do if you could do anything right now?” he asks.
“I want to see the stars. I have lived in big cities for so long that I haven't seen the sky full of stars in I don't know how long. Even the lights in Macon are too much for me to be able to see the stars the way I would love to.”
Namon smiles before putting on his helmet and climbs onto the motorcycle. She gets on behind him after putting her helmet on, and the motorcycle speeds out of the parking lot. She looks back at her car knowing that she can never return to the life that she once had. It never truly felt right for her anyway, so she doesn't think that she will really miss anything about it. Other than her music studio, that is.
Chapter Sixteen
Tiffany searches through the study looking for the other ring. Good thing Cyrus is gone on a business trip. She goes through all the notes on his desk, but doesn't find anything. When she goes through the drawers, though, she finds a locked box with a pass code entry. She tries typing in several key words that she thinks may possibly work. Galamythe, fail, Cyrus, fail, Aluana, fail, Tiffany, fail. What the hell can it be? Then it hits her and she feels dumb for not realizing it at first. She types in Demetria and the box opens. You always remind everyone about how badly you want to follow her will. The first thing she finds is a very old journal, which she picks up and flips through. She stops on a very old drawing of a beautiful woman with red hair, and pale complexion. She removes the old sketched portrait, and looks on the back of it to read the message.
To Cyrus,
I give you this picture along with my heart. When I turned you into my first creation to use you against my brothers, it was just as a weapon. Never did I dream that I would fall in love with you. Love, such a human trait, and I wonder if that makes me any less of a demon than I was. If anything were to ever happen to me, I want you to carry out my legacy, and bring my brother Galamythe back before my brothers do. Each of us has our own desires for which we want to use him. Denominos is the main threat, so you must have Galamythe destroy him first.
With much love,
Demetria
Tiffany closes the journal, and puts the picture in her pocket. She has a better understanding of why Cyrus is the way that he is, but she has lost any ability of feeling compassion toward him since he shattered her heart. He never loved me; he has been too busy still feeling love for someone long dead. She searches through the box, and finds the ring. The ring slides onto her finger very easily, and she smiles at the thought of revenge. She always did care for the legend of Demetria, the mother of all vampires, being as she is the one that even made being a vampire possible, and it was a sad day for all vampires when Cyrus announced that Lance had managed to kill her. Everyone mourned, but none as much as Cyrus had. She walks back outside to meet with Drake.
“I've got the ring,” she says while showing him her hand.
Drake places her hand between his, and chants until the ring is surrounded by a green light. He removes his hands, and the eye glows green and the light slowly fades away.
“Whenever you are nearby the other ring or the amulet, this ring will glow green. I could have used this sooner but I wasn't ready for Cyrus to have access to that knowledge just yet.”
“Alright, but you're still coming with me in case I have use for one of your demons. Who knows who or what she has met up with by now?”
They get into Tiffany's car, and she drives, following the GPS signal that she had installed on Aluana's car. Within minutes, they pull into the Waffle House parking lot and see her car just sitting there empty. Tiffany gets out of the car and walks inside.
“Excuse me, do you know where the owner of that car is?” she asked, pointing to the car.
The waitress that served Namon and Aluana walks over, and looks out the window.
“No ma'am. She got on the back of some guy's bike that she was having lunch with here, and they rode off. I tried to catch her, she left her purse here,” she says as she steps behind the counter and grabbing Aluana’s purse to hand it over.
Tiffany takes the purse and peers inside noticing the car keys and everything are in it.
“Whic
h direction?” she demands.
“Well, they turned right onto Spring Street right over there, and that leads into east Macon.”
“Thank you for your help,” Tiffany says with a devious smile. Tiffany walks back outside and gets back into the car.
“Great, chances are she is in skin walker territory. Hope you have a plan on standby, Drake,” she says while backing the car up and driving toward east Macon.
Namon parks his motorcycle outside of Eric's trailer. Down the hill, everyone else looks up, wondering why he has brought a woman here. He turns, facing her as they remove their helmets. The door opens to Eric's trailer, and he looks a good bit pissed.
“I thought I told you it wasn't safe to go out, and for you to lay low!” He notices Aluana, who is starting to look really uncomfortable and nervous. His mood starts to change slightly, not wanting to make a bad first impression.
“So is this her?” Eric asks.
Namon nods.
“I'm sorry I disobeyed orders, but it’s a very good thing that I did,” Namon says.
“I'll hear you out. Kaya!”
He calls for her in the trailer. She walks outside, and when she sees Aluana, she smiles. Standing beside Namon, she nudges him in the ribs.
“Wow, she's beautiful. No wonder you went through so much trouble,” Kaya said under her breath
Namon starts to blush slightly.
“Never mind that,” Eric says to Kaya.
“Can you take our guest,” he pauses looking perplexed, “What's your name?”
“Aluana, sir.”
“Right, take Aluana, and introduce her around while I have a few words with our rebel.” He hikes his thumb at Namon.
Kaya takes her down the hill as Namon and Eric walk inside the trailer. Eric locks the door and turns, facing Namon, crossing his arms and giving him the “I'm waiting” look.
Blood Stained Lives (The Blood Stained Saga Book 1) Page 18
