Once Upon A Midnight... (The Firsts Book 9.5)

by C. L. Quinn

  “Santa is a very special man. Here in France he is called Père Noël, and he brings gifts to good little boys and girls, of which I know all of you have been this year. But you must go to sleep so that Santa Claus will come and leave the gifts for you.”

  “But Eillia, how does he know that we are good? Does he spy on us?”

  Gathered around the fire, many of the parents smiled at the question.

  “Cairine, you are such a cynic, my little darling. No, Santa is a magical being and he knows. He does not need to spy. He has told me that all of you are very, very good little children and he is proud of you.”

  Now, Cairine was beaming. “Joyeux Noël!”

  “It is, more so that any of us ever expected.”

  Cairine stood. Her hands loosely clasped, her satin champagne curls, still tinged with red, cascaded down to her waist. Eillia’s eyes moved over the child, only about 4 years old, but so much more advanced, standing there with an elegance and grace beyond her years.

  Clearing her throat, she asked politely, “Aunt Eillia, may we show something to everyone?”

  “Of course, my darling.”

  Nodding to Caedmon, now nearly 3, and Eras, just over a year, Cairine watched as they came to her, then took their hands and led them to the edge of the circle beside the Christmas tree. They turned to face their parents and guests.

  “We wanted to provide a Christmas show, too, like Aunt Chione and Uncle Donovan did the other night. Regarder.”

  The two little boys watched Cairine closely, their hands still wrapped in hers. All three pairs of eyes went to the roaring fire in the center of the seating area. They smiled and then lifted all six hands to the sky.

  Everyone looked up as balls of fire, fully contained in circular shapes, rose into the sky and began to swirl around each other.

  The balls formed into unique patterns and then pulled away to re-form another beautiful pattern.

  Park looked at her mate. “Bas, they’re commanding air and fire.”

  “Puts a whole new spin on children playing with fire, doesn’t it?”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  Koen walked up to his daughter and son-in-law.

  “Very. I’m just worried about their control.”

  Park looked at Cairine, a look of pure elation on her face. “Don’t worry about it. They’ve got it. Look at Cairine. She isn’t worried, so that means she totally has it.”

  Standing now, watching the magnificent display, Koen held his mate close, Alisa’s freshly washed hair infusing the air with her scent. Bas and Park, Bas’s hands curled around Park’s expanding belly, watched their daughter with a mixture of pride and concern. She was only 4!

  Ahmose held Mal, their infant daughters lying on blankets on the sand in front of them, Starla and Jacob right beside them. His son was a part of this incredible triad of children exhibiting powers that proved that the future was going to be very interesting indeed. This family that they’d built, this strange cobbled-together family from different parts of the world, that worked better than it had any right to, the love and fierce loyalty that held them together beyond anything he could have imagined, he couldn’t ask for more. Merry Christmas indeed.

  Marc watched these talented vampire children play with physics, make air and fire do things they should not do, and glanced down at the babies he’d made with Tamesine. He’d been told over and over since he joined the community how powerful Tamesine was. These beautiful babies that looked up at him from their baskets with huge trusting eyes, this was something that they would do some day. It blew his mind, but then he looked at his mate, bending down to kiss Fia on the forehead, and knew that it would be wonderful and fascinating, so grateful that he’d come with her to France to the life he might have missed. Had he not trusted his instincts, he and Tam would never have been and these remarkable babies would never have been born.

  Cherise watched the collected power around this fire, vampires over a thousand years old, and new vampire children, a third generation of first bloods. And here she was in the center of it all, a vampire empath, guiding and aiding people she loved more than she ever thought possible. She remembered the time that she’d left it all, had no desire to suffer the pain and loss of love. David had changed that when he blasted into her life with a need beyond anything she’d ever seen. The man had needed a lifeline to make it back to his life, but he’d also given her a lifeline back to hers.

  Her eyes sparkling with moisture, she was grateful to spend this special time with people who were family and always would be.

  Unlikely friends had become family too. Cherise watched Bryn kiss Lauren’s neck as he reached for a bottle of MoonShine. Smiling, the cad never changed, she thought, and that was nice, because he had a heart as big as the moon. He loved his new vampire wife more than even he believed possible. Lauren, though, was the biggest surprise of all.

  Lauren had become vampire when Bryn used his blood to keep her from dying. She’d been too close to death, though, so he’d had to convert her, and since then, Lauren had embraced her new vampire life and become so valued in their household in Iceland. Lauren made them laugh, and in long dark winter months, that was the best skill of all.

  Cherise glanced overhead as the balls of fire continued their dance on the wind. Cairine. Ah, the precious little lady. The only third generation first blood they knew of, yet, and she was precocious, talented, powerful and brilliant. Even now, she was smart enough to use the other first blood children to boost her power in a merge that accomplished something that she could not do alone. She would lead them one day when she was called. Cherise did not have divination of that day, but she hoped that she herself would be there to help them. Fate had not seen fit to let her in on that secret yet.

  Giggling now, the children were beginning to lose focus on their task, and one of the fireballs dived dangerously close to the Christmas tree, but then veered up and back into the flames of the bonfire to merge with the rest of the fire.

  Chione smiled at Cairine. She loved this beautiful little girl who had a spectacular destiny. It was too soon for the children to be performing like this, but she hated to squelch creativity. And she had their back.

  Donovan’s hand curled around hers. “I saw that. You’re a good little auntie.”

  “We are the guardians of the guardians, right? That job started the moment we were given the power. This is part of it.”

  “I agree. I feel it too. This little vampire, Cairine, she is also connected to the earth’s powers.”

  “Yes, she can and will command elements. I am overwhelmed as I wonder what is to come. This is an unprecedented event, this extraordinary collection of warriors. It makes me worry about the future.”

  “My lady, we’ve got it.”

  “Merry Christmas, my love.”

  “Merry Christmas.”

  Donovan kissed Chione then, a deep promising kiss that entered her on a level far beyond a simple kiss. When she’d gone to the American States to search for her destiny all those months ago, and wondered if Destiny knew what it was doing, she hadn’t known then what Destiny had planned for her future. But, oh, hell, yes, had Destiny known exactly what it was doing!

  Once the balls of fire all crash-landed back into the fire, thunderous applause made the three children smile.

  Koen stepped to the center of the group.

  “It’s coming onto daylight, so we’ll need to go inside. I would like to thank all of you for coming to my home, for sharing my bread, for laughing and bringing the warmth and love of two first blood clans together. We share a future between us because of our special children, their mission for this planet, and the blood of ancient vampires. I consider all of you brothers and sisters. Know that you are welcome here anytime and that if you ever need help for anything at all, you may call and we will be there for you.” His eyes went to Ahmose, who stood and walked over. They clasped hands.

  “Brother,” Ahmose agreed.

  Nodding, Koen looked
over the collection of beautiful people that had filled his life in the past few years.

  “Thank you all for being a part of my journey through life. I am better for it. Merry Christmas. I would like to make a suggestion that we meet every Christmas here or in Zambia, and celebrate this season.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement. “Good,” Koen acknowledged. “Okay, get in, get safe. If you would like anything before you go down for the day, there should still be a nice selection of holiday food in the dining room.”

  Alisa waited for Koen to join her and they all went up the stairs to prepare for the end of night.

  Xavier had fallen asleep. Ahhh, too much MoonShine.

  It was a vice, alcohol, and he knew he overindulged, but damn’t, he loved the stuff. His head hurt and he reminded himself that he hadn’t eaten much today and that was a mistake for a big vampire, who needed thousands of calories a day to keep his metabolism running properly.

  He glanced towards Claude and expected to see him hanging onto the ground, the chains taunt, as they usually were. But he wasn’t.

  Claude was gone. After a second to process what he was seeing, Xavier split the air to search for the man. He found him nowhere near.

  “Och, the bastard!”

  Fuck me, he thought. I have to go back and let Tamesine know that I’ve failed to keep the asshole secured. He didn’t usually mess up like this. Xavier prided himself on his excellent skills to manage that which needed managing. He considered himself the gold-standard in excellence.

  Picking up the rest of the bottle of MoonShine, he went up the stairs into the open air. Twilight was near. Well, tomorrow would be soon enough to begin the search.

  He was back at Koen’s villa within half an hour.

  Nine

  Merry had nearly fallen asleep herself. Lying full out against the metal vent, she watched the office below. She tried to keep an eye on the guard, but he was all over the place. Finally, he rolled up on the couch and pulled a crocheted afghan over himself. Ten minutes later, she heard him snore. Time to go!

  Still staying as quiet as possible, she crawled back to the room they were locked inside, and whispered to Taggert.

  “He’s asleep. I’m going for it.”

  “Okay. Merry, remember, if you get out, just go. Find a police officer, but don’t come back here on your own. Promise me, Christmas girl.”

  “Taggert…”

  “Promise me, please.”

  “Sure,” she agreed. Like hell she was going to leave him there! She would try to get the police to come, but if they didn’t, she would be back, armed and ready for the fight.

  As she crawled past several vents, trying to ensure that her efforts would be undetected, she found a room that looked like a storage area. Perfect.

  Placing her back against the wall of the vent, Merry slammed her feet into the vent cover, which rattled, but didn’t give way. After a deep sigh, and a quick mantra that she could do this, Merry tried again with the same result.

  “Third time’s a charm,” she whispered, barely above a breath, and gave the cover every drop of power she could manage. This time, whether it was the mantra or repetition, the vent cover burst from the wall, blasting inward and down to clatter obnoxiously on tile floor.

  She waited for any sign that the guard had awakened, but she didn’t hear anything. Satisfied, she turned to lower herself into the room. In this room, there was no beefy guy to catch her this time, so she had to just let herself drop.

  It didn’t go well, the ankle on her left foot twisted, pain shot through instantly as she did everything she could to muffle the motherfuck that came out of her mouth.

  One thing Merry knew about were minor injuries, and this was one. Wrapping a strap around her ankle to support it, she put the box of Christmas decorations where she found the strap back on a tabletop.

  Good to go. Only she couldn’t. For a moment, she stood in front of the door and prayed that the guard would not be there because if he was, it was all over. Taggert’s life and her own depended on her getting safely out of here and contacting the police. She’d never had so much responsibility.

  “Stop stalling and go get help,” she whispered to herself. And opened the door.

  Her breath held, she glanced down the hallway, poorly lit by old fluorescents. When she saw no one there, the hallway empty, she released the trapped air slowly and pulled the door closed carefully. She moved the opposite direction of where she’d come from the vent and headed to the left, rounding corners by peering quickly for the guard, and then continuing at almost a run, her sock-covered feet silent in the empty corridors. When she found a stairwell, she entered and raced down the stairs. Four floors behind her, she exited into the building’s lobby, the low lighting welcome.

  There, thirty feet across the wide room, was freedom.

  Slowly, Merry advanced along the edge of the room, opting for quiet egress instead of a bold blast across the center of the room. She didn’t want to risk surveillance or anything stopping her now that she was so near. Only a few feet now.

  Her socks slipped on the smooth Pergo flooring that made up the entryway of the lobby. Finally, her hand landed on the door. Her eyes closed, she pushed.

  Yeah, she figured. It was locked. She searched the metal frame of the door, and saw the locking mechanism, but it required a key. Fuck!

  Heading to the reception desk, she picked up the phone to dial for help. It would not connect. This was a business phone that needed a code for outgoing calls. Fuck!

  So what was another way out of a building like this that was closed up and locked down for the holidays?

  Only one that she could think of without immediately alerting the guard upstairs that something was amiss. She couldn’t do a fire exit, they were usually alarmed. The only option was to break out a window on one of these ground floor offices.

  Sneaking around the perimeter of the lobby again, she moved down a hallway towards the back, selected a door that led to a waiting area, and tried to open a door that led beyond that. This door, too, was locked, but she knew how to get into the office, if she could find the simple tools that she needed.

  Returning to the lobby, she slipped behind the wide desk and began to search through the drawers. After a few moments she found it, a flat headed screwdriver, in a small toolkit. Now, she just needed a hammer, or something to act like one.

  The next drawer down kindly yielded a small claw-headed hammer. God, this might actually happen. It had to, since she knew that the clock was running out on Taggert.

  Driving the screwdriver edge under the pins that held the door to the hinge, Merry painstakingly removed all three pins. The door sagged heavily on the final pin, but she was determined, and finally, the door came off the hinges into her hands. The weight pushed her back and she nearly lost balance and lost it, but recovered it just before she crashed to the ground, the door on top of her.

  “Okay,” she whispered, and left the corpse of the door lying in the waiting area. The office beyond was small, not lit, but streetlights shined through the window along the back wall that faced a side-street.

  One more search around the room helped her discover her next tool, a heavy metal sculpture of a dollar sign. All that mattered to her at this point was that it was very heavy. Merry hesitated only a moment before she checked her grip, and committed to using all her strength in the strike. The glass gave way and the window shattered.

  Merry held her breath while she waited for an alarm to go off. When nothing seemed to happen, she broke out the rest of the glass and crawled through the window. She was out of the building.

  Below the window, like every surface she could see, a good foot of snow covered the ground and she fell into it. The fall wasn’t bad, but she was surprised that she got out at all without getting hurt. Surprised, too, that she wasn’t cold. Later, she knew it was because adrenaline had her fired up as elation and desperation to rescue Taggert consumed her.

  Feet soaked, she pushed hers
elf away from the building and began what seemed like an endless hike to the main street to where she saw only a single set of headlamps moving past. The car moved slowly but was still beyond her by the time she was able to get out onto the street where he might have seen her.

  Scanning her surroundings, she determined that she must be somewhere downtown, which ordinarily would have been a very busy place, but it was night, and she thought it might be Christmas night. If it were, it meant that no one would be around anywhere here in what looked like a business district. Turning back to the building, she noted the address on the door and the name of the building.

  A light snow began to fall, covering her quickly and wetting her hair thoroughly in minutes. It didn’t affect Merry at all, as she ignored any discomfort and headed towards what she hoped would be someone, anyone, a phone, any chance of calling for help.

  Even though Merry’s mind was too occupied by her mission to notice her physical discomfort, her body reacted to its environment. Her toes, saturated and ice-cold, were losing feeling as she forced herself along the now empty street. The snow continued to fall and had picked up in intensity enough to obscure objects across the street.

  God, she thought, her teeth chattering, no one will even see me here! Still hopeful, because she had to be, and praying now for divine intervention, she pushed on.

  The worst was not knowing where she was or if she was okay. Taggert sat on the tile just on the other side of the door, colder than he’d been in a great many years, and wished there was some way to know that she’d made it out and was safe. He wasn’t sure that he would ever be now, since today was D day, but when the motherfucker came for him, at least he didn’t have to worry about Merry getting hurt. He would attack the guard the second he opened the door to kill him.