by Anya Breton
In fact, I was collected enough to calculate that the person pressed up behind me couldn't be much taller than five foot ten, probably wasn't much heavier than a hundred and seventy pounds, and didn't seem to be all that strong. I decided to attempt to fight rather than plague them. I might feel guilty if it turned out to be a punk kid with circulation problems. One human death on my conscience was enough.
An elbow to the attacker's solar plexus preceded my back kick to their groin. The person behind me grunted, immediately letting go. I whirled around while they were clutching their privates protectively.
"Was that necessary, Miss Denham?"
"Aiden?" The hoarse voice had startled me enough that I'd forgotten to greet him formally.
"Mmm," he purred above a kind of laughing cough.
I had no idea what that meant. But apparently the undead were susceptible to kicks to the family jewels. I'd have to remember that.
"What the hell are you doing here? I could have hurt you," I demanded.
He unfurled to his full height (of five foot ten, I'd been spot on). "I seriously doubt that," he said with a half smile of his ghostly grey lips.
I couldn't see him all that well in the shadows of the alley I'd stumbled into but I thought his long hair was straight tonight. It was darker in color, not black but definitely not honey blonde. It was a good choice because Aiden looked better as a brunette.
He was wearing one of his many three-piece suits. I didn't need light to know that it was a garment that was no doubt made of the finest fabric and tailored to fit him like a second skin. These were requirements of all his suits.
What little illumination there was allowed me to see that he'd maintained much of the facial features from the other night with the exception of the nose. He seemed to be experimenting with a narrower sniffer tonight. I didn't approve but I'd never tell him so. It would be admitting that I approved of other versions of him.
Focus, the little voice in my head screamed. There were five females back inside that I'd yet to free. I couldn't be outside debating with a vampire.
"Wait a second," I said aloud as if he'd been involved in my internal monologue. "You said the vampires couldn't be linked to this at all. What are you doing here?"
"Bringing you this," he said simply.
I looked down at the offer held by his delicately formed fingers. It was a gun nearly identical to the piece I usually carried. The only variance was this one's grip lacked a slash mark from a mutated jungle cat.
"You brought me a gun," I said dully. "Out here...wherever I am."
"You're in Jamaican Plain," Aiden said helpfully. "And yes, I did."
Warily I asked, "How did you know where I was when even I didn't?"
"I followed you."
There was no compunction to that statement. He said it as if it were a foregone conclusion that he'd do such a thing. I opened my mouth to ask another question but clamped it shut without bothering. There were more important things to worry about than why Aiden was following me.
The gun would be helpful. I took it with murmured thanks and tried my best not to look at him. I might do something stupid if I did. Before I could turn back to the door Aiden produced two clips of ammunition from some place hidden within his sports jacket and set those in my hand as well.
"I can't go in with you," he said unnecessarily.
I gave him a sideways look. "What makes you think I'm going back in?"
"You're going to set those girls free. And then I suspect you'll stay to wait for whoever was keeping them." His next statement was spoken as a soft reprimand, "By the by, you haven't told me what you've learned."
The bridge of my nose wrinkled in irritation. "I didn't realize I was supposed to check in with you at every turn."
"Not every turn." Aiden's eyes dropped to my lips.
It flustered me enough that I shifted impatiently toward the door. "Can this wait until after I get these girls out of here?"
He shook his head. It sent the cascade of his hair gently outward. I could smell a slight perfume of cinnamon and spice wafting off him and it was mouthwatering. Maybe he'd come from making breakfast for a lucky lady. I hated that it bothered me that he'd have women.
Aiden's smooth-as-butter tone was matter-of-fact. "After you get the girls out of there I'll be escorting them safely home."
My right eyebrow lifted at him. I let my voice dip into incredulous territory. "You're going to escort them safely?"
He feigned a hurt expression. "You say that as if I have a voracious appetite for young women and can hardly control my urges for the short time I'll be with them."
"I don't know that you don't."
Aiden lifted a hand to his heart. "I am insulted, Miss Denham. Truly."
I felt my cheeks flush automatically. "Sorry." Then I realized how much of a nitwit I was being. "Wait, no. I'm not sorry. You're a vampire. I have every right to think you're a blood-drinking fiend. Gods, why am I even debating with you?"
I turned on my heel and ignored any parting words he had for me. They'd been something said with a laugh, a lovely laugh that made me shiver. He was damn dangerous on too many levels.
But I had a gun now. I was pretty dangerous too.
I ran back through the basement because I'd wasted far too much time dallying with Aiden outside. The girls had stopped screaming. That much was good at least. If there was surveillance, and perhaps the cameras couldn't pick up the lumps on the floor, whatever asshole was watching it might think nothing was amiss now that they'd settled down.
As a precaution I peered around the last door into the pound-for-woman with the gun held in front of me. It was empty of everyone but the corpse on the floor, the ooze that had formally been the Rhino and the women in the cages. I headed within and was immediately met with the imploring sounds of the chick that had sold me out.
"Oh my god, you came back! Let me out! Let me out! Pleeeeassse! I can pay you."
Yeah, she was totally getting let out last.
I fumbled with the large key ring as I knelt at Bottom-Right's door. She looked up at me with surprise.
"I'm not going to hurt you," I told her softly.
"I didn't think you were," she said in her child-like voice. "I'm just...wondering why you picked me first."
"You were the one that answered my questions." I tried to give her a warm smile but under these conditions, in a room with a corpse, a dozen cages, and my blood on the wall, it wasn't all that easy.
I found the key to her lock on the fourth try. Unlike the Rhino I had no trouble unlatching the door. I blamed it on my smaller fingers.
"There are two big rooms out there, just run straight through them to the outside door," I told her as I moved to the next cage where a soccer-mom in a cashmere cardigan, penny loafers and beige pants was waiting. She looked like she probably had kids. I continued my instructions for Bottom-right while I pushed the same key into the lock. "There should be a guy with long brown hair out there. He said he'd help you get to safety." And for some reason, I believed him. "If there is anyone else besides a guy with long brown hair, you get the hell back here, fast. Do you understand?"
Bottom-right nodded quickly. "What about you?"
"I've got to finish unlocking these. You go on. I can handle myself." I paused long enough to smirk at her.
She took a step back, glancing between the door to freedom and me. "Thank you, so much. What's your name?"
"I'd really rather not say." I gestured above us. "There's probably surveillance."
Bottom-right's eyes rounded a little. "Oh. Good idea. Thanks again. I'll never be able to repay you." She made a move to hug me but seemed to think better of it now that I was unlatching the soccer mom's cage.
"Take her too." I yanked the door open then stepped to the next cage.
"Please," the sell-out pled. "Please, lady, let me out."
I ignored her even after Soccer Mom and Bottom-right had rushed out of the room on hobbling legs. I took pity on Top-right,
the shushing girl. She'd legitimately been trying to warn me something bad was about to happen, even if it was for a mildly selfish reason.
I had to help her down from her perch because it was nine feet off the ground and she'd been in the cramped space for a while. She stood working her legs out behind me while I unlocked the Zen master.
"Go on out," I insisted to the two of them once Zen master was freed.
Only after the other women had departed did I kneel in front of the sell-out's cage. She pulled away from the bars, sensing I wasn't pleased with her. I noted her wheat blonde hair was in a rather dated curly style (or frizzy as the case may be) and that she was wearing a sweatshirt that was probably from back when hair bands were big.
"I left you for last for a reason," I informed her with a frown etched into the lines around my mouth. "You sold me out when that guy asked who had done the deed. That was uncool."
"I'm...sorry," she said with a mixture of fear and indignation. "I didn't want to die."
"None of us wanted to die."
"But I wasn't trying to get myself killed by screaming like a mad woman and attacking people."
She was insulting me? Seriously? "Yeah, well who is on this side of the bars now?"
"I can pay..."
I put the key into her lock. "Look, I don't want your money. Just do the world a favor, stop being such a selfish bitch. Because next time your rescuer might not be as forgiving as I am."
She scrambled out of the cage as soon as I'd swung the bars aside. The baleful look she gave me on her way out of the pound could have killed a lesser creature. I resisted the urge to sigh. Some people were beyond redemption.
Steadily I followed behind her to the outside door on the off chance that Aiden would still be there. There was a huddle of frightened women standing a few feet to the left side of the door. The sell out hurried to join them. Aiden emerged from the shadows near me.
"That's all of them?" He questioned, but I knew he already had the answer.
I glanced at them. "Yes."
"You will be careful." It wasn't a question. It should have been because I was rarely careful when it came to things like this.
"You'll get them to their homes safe and unharmed by anyone," I said back in a similar tone.
His lips lifted in an indulgent smile. "Of course."
I gave him a stiff nod then turned to go back inside. His tepid hand grabbed my wrist to hold me back. I stopped walking because I thought it was what he wanted and because I was concerned that if I moved away any more than that, he'd pull me back against him.
"You can leave if this is too dangerous," he said at a softer volume from closer to my ear. "I'll understand if you can't finish it."
"It isn't too dangerous." It was probably a lie but I was a little weirded out that he'd sought me out for this task for the vampires but was now trying to get me to stop. Was this sexism talking now? "Besides, someone in the Covens hurt my dad. Like you said, it's probably the same person that is doing this. I have to finish this."
Tone hardening he replied, "Vengeance is never worth dying for."
"I won't die for it."
"See that you don't."
I tugged forward out of his cool grip. He let me go this time. I didn't breath in relief until I was back inside the basement. Then I realized how much of an idiot I was.
How could I be relieved that I was back in the basement? I'd been captive to an evil asshole, killed two of his men, and released all of his prisoners. I was now going to voluntarily put myself back into a cage to wait on him. There was absolutely no reason to feel relieved.
With my legs stretched up against the top corner of the cage, my back lifted half off the wall, I sat thinking because it was the only thing I could do now.
There was a good reason for my relief. Each time I was around Aiden, which seemed to be happening more and more frequently these days, I had to resist urges. There was something about him that drew me to him. It was powerful, unlike anything I'd experienced with any other man, or vampire for that matter. I couldn't trust myself around him because if I gave in to those urges, Aiden would be killed. I couldn't handle that kind of guilt.
He might be undead but until I saw him kill someone innocent with my own two eyes I was going to assume he didn't deserve death. After all, he'd saved my ass twice. Or was it two and a half times now that he'd brought me a gun? I supposed that distinction was up in the air. I still had to live through this.
The piece rested uncomfortably between the back waistband of my jeans and my skin. Just having it there, cold, heavy and with the safety on, made me feel a little more secure. A little security was good at a time like this.
I didn't really have a plan. The fact that I'd had to save five women had put a crimp in the one plan I did have. Chet wasn't going to be in the mood to talk to me now, at least not about demon summoning. I'd hoped he got loose lipped when he was doing whatever it was he did with the women Michael brought to him. I hadn't realized they weren't killing the girls. Not that it was a bad thing that they weren't. But now I had to come up with some new way to get information out of the asshole.
A dark figure appeared in the room beside me. I turned my head with a quick intake of air; it was what passed as "startled". The mist-coated suit, kohl black hair and slate eyes of my guide were an unexpected sight. I didn't greet him because of the surveillance that was most certainly still rolling. The cameras wouldn't pick him up because he wasn't really in this realm. He was in the Spirit Realm.
"Convince him to leave you alone," he said in his deepest of voices. The tie was indigo today. That wasn't good.
My eyebrows lifted at him in question.
"He cannot follow you. He cannot help you. He cannot touch you," Kastio practically snarled the final verb.
I lifted my hands, palm up, and shook my head. I hope he understood Laura sign language for, what the fuck are you talking about?
"Convince him or he will be killed," my guide insisted.
I stared at him for a long silent moment. He was talking about Aiden. Now? When I was locked in a three-foot by three-foot cage waiting on a kidnapper to realize I'd killed two of his goons? Kastio thought now was a good time to remind me that Aiden Bruce would be killed if I made a misstep where he was concerned?
"Why?" I demanded instead of simply agreeing. I'd asked the same question a few times before and always he'd given me some cryptic answer.
"Because it has to be," Kastio said right on cue.
Yup. See? Cryptic answer.
"Not good enough," I snapped and pulled my legs down in front of me. It was easier to appear in charge when I was upright.
His slate eyes went dark, from gray to nearly black. That was probably a bad sign. But what could he do to me from the Spirit Realm?
Kastio's deepest of voices was thick with some unnamed emotion. I suspected it was probably anger. "I do not make this threat lightly, Laura."
I hate, haaated, when he used my name. The way the vowels dripped off his tongue was almost like a prayer. It was seriously disturbing.
"Nor do I give you direct orders," he pointed out. And I knew he was right.
"What about Fate?" I asked and hoped it wouldn't be useful information for the cameras.
Kastio's black eyes swiveled away from me. He was usually robotic in his lack of emotion. But that had clearly been a guilty response. Guilt after being asked that question meant one thing: he was screwing with Fate!
Whoa. Did that mean Aiden figured into my fate? It had to, didn't it? Did that explain why I was so dramatically pulled to him?
What in the world could Fate have planned involving a vampire? I played over the things Kastio had said to me. He'd said that I couldn't "think of taking up with the vampire". Taking up meant getting involved with, didn't it? Fate wanted to hook me up with a vampire? Why would that be a bad thing? Vampires were notoriously fickle creatures. He'd quickly get bored of me once he'd gotten what he wanted and then he'd drop me for the next fla
vor of the month.
With a quick shake of my head I pushed the thoughts of Aiden and Kastio aside. We were going to discuss this, later. "Not the time for this," I said firmly.
I heard Kastio push a heavy breath through his nose. He flickered out of sight leaving behind a man-shaped cloud of mist as usual. The particles shot out in all directions.
Back against the inner wall I pulled myself to rest until someone arrived. It would hide the gun from my captors and I might be able to stick my feet through the bars for a good stretch. I focused on my cute green and black argyle socks and the tiny frayed edges of my jeans to keep from thinking about what had just transpired. When my thoughts automatically drifted back to contemplating how the vampire figured in, I got desperate enough to mentally recite famous soliloquies from Hamlet.
CHAPTER SIX
I'd been halfway through the soliloquy from act three, scene three when I heard the exterior door open. My recitation ceased in order to listen to the footsteps. At least three different pairs of feet were drawing toward me. It was about damn time.
The man I assumed was Chet swept into the room with his retinue of Rhino thugs fanning around him. "Douche" was the word that immediately popped to mind. He had on a white linen suit ala Stef from Pretty in Pink, two decades out of style, but instead of shaggy blonde hair he had a buzz cut. Oh, and Chet wasn't pretty like Stef. Even against the backdrop of four Rhinos, when anyone looked attractive, Chet barely managed to shine. Maybe it was the drill-sergeant-that-never-gets-to-take-leave look that was stuck on his smashed face.
Chet glanced from the body of Tracksuit to the clothes that had once housed his Rhino enforcer. Then he looked at me. There was malevolence in his eyes that couldn't be mistaken for anything else. He was going to kill me. Or at least he was going to try, really, really hard. Hell, he might even get his hands dirty trying to do it himself.
He walked until he stood directly in front of my cage. Considering the gun in my pants, it wasn't the smartest of positions for him to be in. But shooting him now would be a silly idea.
