“Promise me that we will always do that, that you will let me be your first, and your last,” she requests of him.
“I know it hasn't been long since we first met, but I believe that is definitely a promise that I can keep.”
She smiles before laying her head back onto his chest.
“Good. Because you're mine now,” she says while squeezes him tightly.
Namon smiles while enjoying the blissful feeling of holding her. He doesn't know what it is about her, she looks so delicate, but she also has this quality he cannot describe. Something tells him that she is fully capable of handling herself. All the trials he has been through and all the trials he has ahead of himself have led him to this. He truly feels that the two of them are supposed to be together, and he will do whatever it takes to make sure that is possible.
Chapter Eighteen
The following morning, Tiffany and Drake are now back on the road, and continue their search. They decide to head back toward Macon through Gray. Their vehicle comes to a stop at the traffic light, and the ring begins to glow. Then the light fades slightly, so Tiffany moves her hand all around, and aims it into the direction that causes its light to glow the brightest. When the traffic light turns green, she turns her left blinker on, and pulls into the Ingles parking lot. The ring glows brighter the closer she gets to a woman who is walking toward the store.
“The wolf must have given her the amulet,” Tiffany says.
She parks the car then gets out.
“Keep an eye out for me. We may have to leave in a hurry when I come back out,” she says to Drake.
Tiffany follows the woman everywhere she goes in the store. She keeps a little bit of distance between the two of them so that she isn't noticed, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make a move. Then, as if willed by Tiffany's wishes, the woman walks into the women's restroom. Tiffany smiles as the perfect opportunity presents itself to her.
Kaya enters the restroom, and goes into one of the stalls. As she sits on the toilet, she can hear the door open and close. The clicking sound of the door being locked alerts her that something isn't right. Her senses are assaulted by the scent of dusty old mothballs. Her heart begins to pound when she realizes that she is locked in the restroom with a vampire. To make things worse, she is wearing the amulet that the vampires are after. Stupid move, Kaya. You may as well gift wrapped it for them, she berates herself. Pulling her pants up, she reaches for her cell phone just as Tiffany bursts through the stall door. Tiffany grabs Kaya by the hair and pushes her head first into the mirror. The impact sends shards of broken glass across her face, making deep gashes.
“Where is it? Where is the amulet?” Tiffany yells.
She snatches Kaya back, pushes her down to the floor, and proceeds to kick her in the ribs repeatedly.
“Give it to me, and I may let you live.”
Tiffany kicks her again, and this time the amulet falls freely from beneath Kaya’s shirt. Tiffany reaches down, pulls the amulet over Kaya's head, and then places it over her own.
“Thank you for your help,” she says with a sweet voice.
She unlocks the door and runs out of the restroom, pushing the people on the other side down. As fast as she can, she runs out of the store. Drake has the car waiting for her just outside the store doors, and as soon as she jumps in, they speed off.
Kaya struggles to stand, holding her side where she is sure that her ribs are broken from the heavy abuse inflicted by the vampire. Being kicked in the ribs by a human hurts bad enough, so being kicked by a vampire is brutal. The surrounding crowd encourages her to stay still, telling her that help is on its way, but she pushes her way through the crowd. One woman even tries holding on to her, but decides it is in her best interest to let go once Kaya growls at her. Once she makes it outside of the store, she realizes that she is too late. The vampire is long gone, and there is no way she can track her in this condition. Barely able to breathe, she walks to the car and gets in. She fumbles with the keys and cell phone, trying to start the car and call Eric at the same time. The phone rings, but as soon as someone answers the phone, she looks into her rear view mirror, and sees that her face is covered in deep gashes and blood. She passes out due to the sight of her lost blood as Eric continuously calls her name from the other end of the phone.
Namon and Aluana wake up naked in each other's arms. Both of them have the cheesiest grins on their faces. It's amazing that they got any sleep at all as many times as they made love during the night. Since they have been waiting their whole lives for one another, they didn't want to miss out on anything if they could help it.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he says.
She smiles, looking at him.
“Good morning, handsome. How did you enjoy your night?” she asks.
“It was amazing. Seems like anything outside this cabin didn't even exist, I didn't have a single problem, or responsibility hanging over my head. All that existed were you and me. It was heaven.”
She smiles, and kisses him on the lips from his sweet words. She rests her chin on his chest, looking up at him.
“So are you hungry?” she asks while batting her eyelashes.
“Always,” he says with a smile.
“Good,” She says.
She gets out of bed and puts on the clothes that she had laid out last night since she never got the chance to put them on. Then she walks into the kitchen to see what there is to cook. There isn't much to choose from, so she decides on pancakes since she knows that he at least enjoys eating that. Namon gets out of bed, putting his underwear on along with his pants, and walks into the bathroom. He looks into the mirror, he barely recognizes himself. He gets a brush and tries to tame his long, wild hair, but gives up in a few minutes, and just ties it up into a ponytail. He looks into the mirror again, not used to seeing himself happy. The feeling doesn't last long, though, as a new vision enters his mind.
It is night and the wind is blowing hard. Namon looks all around at the army of demons surrounding him. He sees Wilmington Manor, a bright green light forming a circle above it. From within it, the dragon comes out. It flies over his head, and goes towards down town Macon. Then he turns around just in time to see Cyrus swing a sword at him, and right before the sword would slice through his flesh, the vision is over.
“Katrina, where are you?” he says in his mind.
His own reflection is replaced with the image of Katrina.
“I'm here, son. What's wrong?”
“I had a vision of the future. I'm not ready for the fight ahead of me. I don't think I can win.”
“Do not underestimate yourself, son. There have been overwhelming battles against great odds before where White Wolves have come out on top. Your father and the others against the Shadow Cats, and the army they had made, for example. I know you also haven't forgotten Lance and Alexandria's battle with Galamythe. They weren't able to destroy him, but they did imprison him. You know what one thing turned the tide during both of those battles?”
“What?”
“Love.”
Katrina’s image fades away as Aluana calls for Namon. His attention then turns to the very familiar scent of pancakes. He splashes water on his face and dries it off with a towel, trying to remove any worry away from his face so that Aluana will not notice. His smile is big once he walks into the dining room and sees this beautiful woman setting the table with his most favorite breakfast food. He takes a deep breath, taking in each of the wonderful smells.
“Smells like heaven in here,” Namon says.
“It's just pancakes, silly.”
He walks over to her, wraps his arms around her waist from behind, and hugs her. Then he pulls her hair back behind her neck and kisses it.
“Who said I was talking about the food?”
She smiles at the sweet gesture even though it is cheesy, and she almost even laughs at it, but decides not to.
“Sit down and eat, silly man.”
She turns around, leans
up and kisses him on the lips before pulling her chair out to sit. He walks around the table and sits across from her on the other side. Usually he would just dig in and eat pancakes like a pig, but he wants to use his manners. So he takes his time, and actually cuts the pieces smaller for a change, and eats average size bites at a time instead of the large ones he is used to.
“This is so good, thank you so much. You just don't know how much I love pancakes.”
“Well that is all there really was to fix. Plus I knew that you liked them since you ate so many of them yesterday morning. So it's not really that big of a deal.”
“It is, more than you know. That is one of my favorite traditions. When I was little, my mom would make us a big pancake breakfast every Sunday morning before church. As a way of keeping that tradition going, my godmother Katrina would do the same thing. I always could tell she did it just for me because she hardly ate any when she made them.”
Aluana listens to him, hearing the sadness in his voice.
“You miss them a lot, don't you?” she asks.
He nods while taking a sip from his glass of orange juice that she had ready for him. She takes a bite of her pancakes, and thinks to herself she couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose her whole family. Then again, she has no memory of her family to begin with, so it's hard to imagine what she doesn't remember.
“I don't remember much about my mom and dad. I mean, I know they loved me, but I just wish I hadn't missed out on so much with them. Hell, I have missed out with Katrina too. She was like a mother to me, and she wasn't here to celebrate my eighteenth birthday or my twenty-first birthday with me.”
“I'm sorry,” she says. “I tell you what, how about we keep the tradition going, and I will cook you pancakes every Sunday morning. Just me and you, how does that sound?”
Namon smiles at the thought.
“I think I could get used to that idea.”
“So when was your birthday?”
“Actually, the same night I first met you. It was the best birthday ever, in my opinion, just for that reason.”
She cannot help, but smile at him.
“You're so sweet, you know that? Cheesy as hell, but sweet.”
He dips his finger in his syrup and then trails his finger over the bridge of her nose.
“Now why did you do that?” She says wiping it off her nose.
She pretends to be paying attention to her pancakes, but keeps glancing over at the bottle of syrup. He notices this and tries to grab the bottle, but she gets it right before he does, squeezing it, making syrup squirt on him. The two of them wind up having a little breakfast food fight right there at the table, both of them laughing and smiling the whole time.
Meanwhile back at the trailer park, Brice carries Kaya gently over to the picnic table.
“I found her at Ingles, boss. Whoever did this roughed her up pretty bad,” he says.
Eric holds Kaya's face and kisses her gently as tears form in his eyes.
“Kaya, baby, are you still with me? I need you to try and phase, baby. I know it's going to hurt like hell, but you will heal a lot faster in your wolf form.”
She cries out in agony as her body goes through the changes needed. Fifteen painful minutes go by before she completes the change. Sierra comes out with the all-purpose skin walker medical kit and treats the wounds on her face.
“Now Kaya, this is going to hurt. I need to reset your ribs, all right?”
Kaya whimpers with understanding. Sierra puts pressure on her rib cage, and presses in the areas needed to reset them. She howls out in pain as her bones are pieced back together. Eric paces back and forth, worried about Kaya, and trying to figure out who or what could have done this.
“Is she going to be all right, Sierra?” he asks.
“Yes, she will be fine, but her face will be scarred. The wounds were too deep, and she was in human form for too long for the scars to completely heal away after the phase. She should be able to change back in half an hour, though.”
Eric hugs Sierra.
“Thank you so much. I would be lost without her,” he says.
“I know. It's going to be alright, Eric,” she reassures him
Half an hour later, everyone stands around. Eric is still pacing, and then Kaya phases back to her human form.
“I need water,” she says softly.
Sierra rushes over with a bottle of water and helps Kaya lean up to drink. Eric kneels on the ground so that he is closer to her. He kisses her forehead over her scars, and she looks at him with a weak smile.
“I love you,” she manages to say.
“I love you too, baby. Who did this to you?” he asks.
She sits all the way up fast, and then stands. She tries to walk, but stumbles since she hasn't regained all of her strength. Eric helps her back up, and has her sit on the bench.
“We have to warn Namon. They are in danger,” she says.
“From what?” Eric asks.
“I was attacked by a vampire, and,” she chokes on her words, “I failed him.
“He asked me to keep it safe, but I failed,” she says right before she starts sobbing.
“What do you mean?” Eric asks.
“She took the amulet.”
Brice turns shredding his clothes off as he runs toward the woods. Once he reaches the tree line, he stops long enough to phase into his wolf form. Once changed, he lets out a long warning howl so loud that the ground around him shakes. Then he runs full speed into the woods toward the direction of the cabin.
Back at the cabin, Aluana and Namon finish with cleaning up after breakfast. It took them a while to get the syrup off the table Namon even had to take a shower. It was a disadvantage, her having the bottle of syrup like that. When he shuts the shower water off, he hears the faint sound of a wolf howl. He immediately recognizes the howl as Brice. He doesn't worry about drying off, and just puts on his pants, and rushes out of the bathroom.
“Something is wrong,” he says.
Namon passes by Aluana and opens the front door. He is greeted by several warrior demons as they grab him by the arms, dragging him outside of the cabin, one of them on each arm, and two more at his feet. Then another one materializes, starts jumping up, and down on his stomach. He lies there for a moment out of breath.
“Aluana, run!” he manages to yell after regaining his breath.
She comes out of the front door, and Drake grabs her. Her legs kicking as she tries to break free of his grasp, but then Tiffany approaches, punching her so hard that it renders Aluana unconscious. This sight fills Namon with rage. He rolls over, making the demons fall, and he phases mid roll. Then he sinks his teeth into the nearby warrior's throat, ripping it out while shaking his head back and forth. Snarling and growling, he looks at Drake and Tiffany then starts running in their direction, but he is pinned to the ground by several warrior demons. His eyes are locked onto Drake, and he slowly continues his way toward him, dragging with him the pile of demons that are on top of him. He sees Drake chanting and within a few moments, the ground starts to shake as a massive form rises from the Earth.
Namon manages to break free of the warrior demons just in time to be hit by a large stone fist. He falls several yards away and lands on his feet, but slides a few more feet before stopping. His legs are wobbly as he stands back up on all four legs. He looks over, and sees that Tiffany and Drake are leaving with Aluana. Between them and himself, stands the creature that knocked him silly. He stares in horror at the destroyer demon as memories flood back of a creature just like it causing the car to crash when he was a boy. He never told anyone, but he had seen the creature from the Waffle House window crush his mother with one fist, and then had seen it fall on his father, crushing him as well. Namon has had many restless nights during his childhood due to nightmares of this demon.
“Run, Namon!!! Don't let this thing catch you, or you're gone!!!” Katrina says into his mind.
Part of him agrees with Katrina, and he knows
that he shouldn't try to fight this thing, but his heart is telling him that if he doesn't, then Aluana will be lost to him. He remembers reading in his Beastiary about the destroyers. He took special attention in his research of them in case he ever had to fight one, since one of these killed his parents. Gem in the back of the neck. No problem, just run by, jump on its back, and rip it out. Piece of cake. The destroyer's footsteps make the ground tremble as it approaches Namon. Yeah, piece of cake, my ass. He runs beneath its legs just before it brings its massive fist down onto the ground where Namon was standing. The force of the impact knocks him off his feet. It turns around slowly to face Namon as he just starts to get back on his feet. They may be slow, but I can't stay on my feet if it keeps hitting the ground like that. He backs away from the creature, keeping his eyes locked on it. Then he looks over past it, watching Drake and Tiffany entering the woods.
He runs straight for the creature in hopes of dodging it, intending to get by it to save Aluana. When he reaches the beast, he manages to dodge beneath its legs and run through. He focuses on Aluana, who is unconscious and helpless to do anything. He doesn't notice the warrior demons that have regrouped as they tackle him, forcing him to the ground again. The destroyer demon then turns around, and Namon can feel the impact tremors from its feet as they pound the ground, walking in his direction. There is silence, and time seems to stop. His eyes lock onto Aluana, and he is overcome with sadness.
“I failed you...I love you, and I'm sorry,” he says, trying to connect his mind with hers, but he hears nothing. He closes his eyes, and then he feels the impact as the destroyer hits the demons along with Namon. He is force phased back into human form as his limp body soars through the air. He doesn't feel anything as he blacks out. The water doesn't even wake him as he lands in the nearby river.
Chapter Nineteen
Cyrus walks into the mansion, and no one is to be found anywhere: not a single guard at any post, and neither Tiffany nor Aluana. He walks from room to room, and still doesn't find anyone. Then the front door opens, and Tiffany walks through. Drake follows behind, carrying Aluana. He drops her a little less than gently on the marble floor. Cyrus enters the lobby, and sees them.
Blood Stained Lives (The Blood Stained Saga Book 1) Page 21
