by C. J. Pinard
Since he wouldn’t speak, I did. “This is probably the only time I’m going to actually give a warning to a leech like you, but it’s highly advisable that you go ahead and fuck off back to where you came from.”
His eyes widened momentarily, but he quickly regained control. A slow, unpleasant grin split his face. “Aw. You’re so cute. Are you his newest little pet? Beckett always did love taking on projects to see if he could fix them. But,” he said, putting a clean, manicured finger to his bottom lip while supporting his elbow with the opposite hand, “I told him over and over that wolves couldn’t be fixed. They were stubborn and just didn’t listen. I told him to get himself a Labrador if he wanted some canine companionship.” He ended his insult with a triumphant smile.
I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and I swallowed down the growl that was threatening to erupt from my mouth. If I didn’t get a handle on this anger, someone was going to call the cops. I counted to five inside my head while refusing to break eye contact with the vampire. I lowered my voice so only he could hear. “Listen, motherfucker, this club maybe a gay one, but they’re mostly humans,” I matched his stare. “I’m not going to get into a paranormal pissing contest with you in here. If you care to step outside, I’m sure we can handle this like... adults.”
Jacquez stared at me for a long second, pursed his lips, and then burst out laughing as if that were the funniest thing he had ever heard. He even tilted his head back. But when his entourage of goons joined in the laughter, I lost it. I didn’t have the thigh dagger on, as I knew the club’s security wouldn’t let me in with it, but I did have it shoved into the small of my back. I also had Kellan.
“The Love is Love Lounge, I need your help now!” I yelled inside my head. I was hoping Kellan was at Moon Chasers just around the block, or somewhere nearby. I still had no idea how this damn telepathy worked.
“Outside, Jacquez,” I gritted out, still not breaking his stare.
He stopped laughing and his face went frighteningly serious. His jaw bunched and ticked a few times, and then I turned my back on him and resisted the urge to blitz. Instead, I walked quickly to the door, and when I arrived outside, I saw Beckett and Gavin standing there talking to each other in hushed tones. Beckett looked relieved to see me, but then his face crumpled when he saw Jacquez behind me.
“Why can’t you just go away?” Gavin asked, staring at Jacquez while holding onto Beckett protectively.
The vampire stared at Gavin, then looked at Beckett. “An elf, really? You really can’t stick to your own kind? Ya know, I wasn’t planning to run into you tonight, but when I spotted you, I was happy to see you were still around. Now, honestly, I thought you’d never leave California, but I obviously underestimated you.”
Beckett’s dark-blue eyes went stormy, and then his face twisted into rage as he screamed, “Like I had a choice! Like I could stay in L.A.! I’m supposed to be fifty years old. Look at me!” His fists shook and his eyes burned with contempt. Lowering his voice and attempting to calm himself, he quietly said, “I hate you, Jacquez. I hate you for what you did to me. You selfishly turned me into this, then you left me!” Beckett fell onto the ground, the shock of seeing his maker and someone he had obviously once loved too much for him now.
Gavin bent to help him, and I did too. “Shhh,” he soothed. “I’ve called for a car. We’re leaving soon,” he said to his boyfriend.
Relieved they were leaving, I planned on going with them. As much as I wanted to stab this Jacquez asshole through the heart, it would have to wait. There were too many people around, as a few of them had followed us out of the bar, determined not to miss a second of the drama. Not to mention, this was a very busy part of downtown. People milled to and fro along the sidewalks, shopping or bar-hopping.
I glanced up at Jacquez and saw some kind of jealousy burning in his eyes at the sight of Gavin comforting Beckett.
“You’re a pussy, Beckett.” Jacquez advanced toward the couple, a murderous look on his face. “I’m ashamed of you. I thought—”
Instead of finishing, his words were cut off when he cried out and fell to his knees on the pavement. He put his hands to the sides of his head, and his group of men rushed to his side.
I stood with my mouth open, and then looked at Gavin. His pale face was stormy, his purple-blue eyes glaring at Jacquez. With both arms down by his side, fists balled and teeth clenched, he was staring intently at the wicked vampire who was down on his knees.
“Make. It. Stop,” Jacquez panted out, still on the ground, his hands cradling his head.
“Say you’re sorry, you worthless piece of shit,” Gavin said through his teeth, a wicked calm in his voice.
The smell of lavender was overwhelming at this point, and I looked around and could see Gavin was the only Elven around.
“Fucking elves,” Jacquez said, breathing hard.
“Apologize!” Gavin roared.
The people who had followed us out of the club, along with a few who had been walking along the sidewalks, stopped to watch the freakshow.
Without warning, Jacquez seemed to jump up, now unaffected by the headache—or whatever it was that Gavin had done to him. I looked over to see one of Jacquez’s men throwing Gavin to the ground.
Just then, a small, white Toyota pulled up the curb, zipped down its passenger window, and yelled out the window, “Gavin?”
Oh, my God.
I ignored the Uber driver and saw Jacquez pounce on Gavin. Jacquez’s man walked away, and as he did, Beckett grabbed the guy by his ponytail and punched him in the face. They both fell to the ground around, throwing punches.
The crowd was eating it up. They were whooping and yelling as they filmed it all on their phones.
I ran over, and tried to pull Jacquez off of Gavin. It wasn’t easy, though, and I briefly wondered if I should start to carry some kind of pepper spray to try to control situations like this. So I jumped on his back and began trying to claw at his eyes with my nails. Gavin got up and went over to help Beckett.
Are supernatural creatures even affected by pepper spray?
“No,” came a voice inside my head. “We aren’t.”
“Kellan!”
Jacquez’s cronies jumped in and it turned into one wicked street brawl. I screamed when one of his men pulled me up to my feet by my ponytail and pinned me against the side of the building. I reached for my dagger and realized it wasn’t there. With rage, and my eyes glowing yellow, reflecting off his sickly pale skin, I growled and watched as my fingers turned into claws.
What the...
Not understanding how that could happen when there wasn’t a full moon, I had no time to analyze it as the vampire bared his fangs and his eyes turned black, the whites disappearing altogether.
“Put those fangs away, you disgusting leech, you certainly don’t want a piece of this!”
I reached behind me to retrieve my dagger from the small of my back, but I was too slow. The vampire was whisked away as Kellan suddenly materialized where the vampire has been. He pressed a crushing kiss to my lips and then tossed the vamp across the street as if he weighed nothing at all.
I gasped, and then glanced around to see lots of people standing around watching us, still filming us.
“Stop, Kellan. This is going to go viral in about five minutes if we don’t chill this shit.”
I saw my love look around, and then his gaze met mine. He nodded briefly, then walked coolly over to Phil and Maurice, who were restraining some of Jacquez’s men. He whispered close by their ears. Both his men nodded and let the others go.
Beckett and Gavin were already taking off down the street inside the Uber, and I breathed a sigh of relief that they were safe. Jacquez and his men stood defiantly by, and, aware that lots of the humans were still standing around filming us, I went to Kellan and said in his ear, “Let’s get outta here before we become Internet-famous.”
He nodded briefly, shot a glance at his two comrades, and we strolled away from the scene with
slow precision as if we hadn’t a care in the world.
“Beckett’s a pussy and so is his little dog. Woof, woof,” I heard Jacquez say in his strong accent. It was said under his breath so only we could hear.
“Ignore it, love. We will catch him another day,” Kellan said as we didn’t even bother to turn around and acknowledge him.
I nodded slightly sucked in a big breath of cool Colorado air. “That fucker is gonna meet the business end of my dagger if it’s the last thing I do.”
Chapter 22
As we collapsed in a pile of hormonal bliss, I tried to catch my breath. The big bed bounced under me as I sprawled out, Kellan’s arm under my head. I chanced a glance at the bedside clock which told me it was close to five a.m. I had texted Beckett as soon as we got back to Kellan’s massive house to make sure he and Gavin were all right. I couldn’t stop replaying everything in my head. I was so relieved to hear they were okay and had gone up to Gavin’s family’s cabin in the mountains for a few days to rest.
I lay next to Kellan as he pulled me closer to him and kissed the top of my head. “Let’s sleep the day away, then tonight, we’ll find this nemesis you fought earlier, and end him.”
I resisted the urge to laugh and said in a sleepy voice, “Okay, but I’m not fucking around here. I’m gonna find that vampire and send him back to Infierno where he belongs.”
Kellan let out a lazy laugh. “Of that, I have no doubt, love.”
“You speak Spanish?” I asked.
“Not fluently,” he said. “But when you’ve been alive as long as I have, you pick up things.”
I stopped trailing my fingers over his hard, pale chest and looked up at him. “I was wondering... do you ever have the desire to go back to England? I mean, you have to miss it, right?” I laid my head back on his chest, hoping that would make him open up. It worked, because he began to talk.
“I have been back to visit several times. It’s changed so much, though, that it’s barely recognizable to me. The River Esk was how we made our living, but now it doesn’t even look the same. Everything is different. But so is the whole world. I love America, nonetheless. More freedoms.”
“The prince and his wife just popped out another little royal kid. It might be fun to go visit.”
He chuckled. “It’s not like we can make an appointment to meet the little royal.”
“I know, I was just making conversation. Americans are obsessed and fascinated by British royalty. Which is kinda funny considering this country was created to get away from it.”
“Americans,” Kellan sighed.
“You’re one now, aren’t you?” I asked.
He made lazy circles on my shoulder with his thumb. “I am, yes. I have to get a new ID every few decades. I gave myself an American birth certificate this time around.”
“Seriously? How do you just make yourself a birth certificate?” I asked.
“I don’t steal them from newborns or dead people, if you must know,” he replied, and I could hear the teasing in his voice.
I slapped his chest lightly. “I know that. You probably, what, ‘have a guy’, right?”
“Something like that,” he replied softly.
“Sir,” Jeffrey’s voice came across the intercom I didn’t know existed.
Kellan picked up his phone and swiped the screen, and then tapped a few buttons. “Yes, Jeffrey?”
Intercom app? Cool.
“Do you need anything before you retire?”
Kellan looked at me. “You?”
“Just some bottled water if you have any.”
“Three bottles of water, please,” Kellan said into his phone.
“Right away,” Jeffrey replied.
He set his phone down and looked at me as I sat up on my elbow, the sheets pulled up over my chest as I rested my hand over them. He leaned forward and stared into my eyes, and then pressed his mouth to mine. I swooned and wrapped my arm around his neck. We didn’t come up for air until a knock sounded at the door.
“You can leave them outside, Jeffrey.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied through the door.
I looked at Kellan. “Hey, did you know elves have, like, mind telepathy power or something?”
He nodded. “Yes, it’s some kind of ability to cause severe pain in certain parts of the body. It’s quite frightening to experience.”
My eyes went wide. “It’s happened to you before?”
“Yes, a very long time ago, when Edgar would make me go hunt with him. He tried to attack an Elven woman and her mate one particular time. He didn’t even get close enough before the two of us were writhing in pain on the ground. It was quite... unpleasant. We left the fair beings alone after that.”
I furrowed my brow. “So why did you hire one to be your... butler or whatever Jeff is?”
“The Elven are a generally peaceful race of creatures. I haven’t had a lot of encounters with their kind, but they usually keep to themselves. They only use that power as a defense mechanism. It also tires them out, almost to near collapse, and they need to recharge, so they only really use it when they feel it’s a life-or-death situation.”
I nodded and laid my head back down on his chest. “I will never get tired of talking to you. You have so much knowledge.” I yawned.
“More talk later, sleep now, sweetheart,” he whispered before kissing the top of my head.
I was back in the castle-like home I’d come to know as Linden’s place. I was walking down a hallway, Phil and Maurice on either side of me.
“What the heck going on?” I asked to myself.
“Just be quiet and answer questions, and you’ll be fine,” Maurice answered me.
What!
I looked up at him, his massive shoulder almost blocking my view of his face. He glanced down at me with a wink, then back straight ahead. I looked down at my body and saw black leather pants, a black tank top, and my black leather jacket. My favorite black shit-kicking boots trudged over rough-looking ceramic tiles. I saw my dagger on my thigh in its strap. I went to reach for it, when I realized I couldn’t move my arms. I yanked my right hand and it pulled against my left one behind my back. Cold metal secured them together.
“Why am I handcuffed?”
“Be quiet, we’re not gonna say it again. Just don’t speak right now. Please,” Phil said, sounding a little desperate and stressed. He didn’t look at me, but tightened his fist’s grip on my upper arm.
How are they interacting with me? I must be having a regular dream. If this was a vision, I would be observing like a third party, instead of being first person in this story.
But had I ever actually been “the star” any of my visions before except as a spectator? No, I hadn’t.
Deciding I had no other choice than to roll with it, I paid attention to my surroundings. The walls of this wide hallway were some kind of calming beige color, and faux torches were set every twelve feet or so. The flame on each one looked real enough, but I could see they were nothing more than the same technology used to light a gas fireplace.
It seemed like it took forever to reach the end of the hallway, and when we did, two large, wooden oval doors with black iron hardware greeted us. Phil let go of me and used one massive arm to pull open the left one.
As we entered the colossal room that was about the size of my high school cafeteria, we all stopped dead in our tracks at the sight before us. I let out a blood-curdling scream. I fell to my knees and wailed like a wounded animal. Kellan’s body, still in his suit and on his knees, toppled over slowly to the floor, as his head rolled away in the opposite direction.
Linden looked up at me with a wild look in his murderous eyes. He held a machete dripping with blood in his fist, and looked up at me with a lascivious smile.
I woke up with a whimpering gasp, bolting upright and throwing my hand to my chest. Tears were streaming down my face and I wiped them away with the back of my hand.
“Fuck!” I murmured. “That better have been a dream.�
�� I looked over to see Kellan was not in bed, or anywhere in the room.
As I began to even out my breathing and ground myself back to reality, I could see my phone light up on the nightstand.
I glanced at the time on it before answering it and saw that it was just after two p.m. Swift Justice, the caller ID read.
“Hello?” I answered quietly, trying to sound calm.
“Oh, my God, Ayla. What part of keeping a low profile do you not understand?” said Jessica’s voice in a tone near screeching.
I pulled the phone away from my sensitive hearing. “Mom?” I half-joked.
“What? No. Don’t you look at the caller ID before you answer the phone?” she asked in an extremely scolding tone.
I sighed and raked my fingers through my unruly hair. “Yes, and I was joking, Mom.”
She sighed. “Where are you? I need to meet with you.”
I groaned. “Well, I just woke up. I’m at my boyfriend’s in Boulder.” I yawned and got up out of the bed stark naked. I grabbed a bottle of water from the top of a small table in the corner of the room. Kellan must have set them there. “Wait, what do you mean, keeping a low profile?” I asked before twisting the lid off the bottle and pressing it to my lips and greedily drinking it down.
“Obviously, you haven’t been online or turned on the TV. Your little melee downtown last night has gone completely viral, Ayla.”
I spit water out in a spray and it covered the phone, my naked body, and the carpet below my feet. I coughed a few times. “Oh, shit! I’m sorry. Dammit. I tried to keep it inside the club,” I lied.
“That wouldn’t have helped,” she said. “Everyone has a phone, everywhere they go.”
She had a point.
“Okay, but why do you need me to meet you?”
She sighed. “Because this is going to cause some serious problems for you. We’re not far from Boulder, I’ll meet you at Magik’s Books & Coffee in an hour.” And then she hung up.
