by Yvette Ford
Thing was the only way to describe it because I couldn’t get a good look. All I knew was that it was tall and thin. Unnaturally thin. When it moved, it seemed to float rather than walk on two legs. Energy was coming off of it too. Lorcan had whispered in my ear that the energy increased when it was about to change or do something magical.
“Why are we whispering?” I asked him. “I know I can’t talk in your head, but normally you’d be showing off by now, all inside my head.”
He didn’t take his eyes off the grunt. “You said your dad gave you a red vitamin?”
“Yeah, so?”
“It wasn’t a vitamin.”
My stomach turned. “What was it?”
“Something created by a doctor I heard of years ago when I was first turned. He was a vampire. He wanted to suppress the traits that make us what we are. It didn’t work on full fledged vampires, but he discovered it did work on humans that have had some of their blood drained by a vampire, if they are showing symptoms of turning. But you’d have to keep taking the pill until your blood replenishes itself, and your system is purified of all traces of the blood I fed you.”
“Oh my goodness. You’re kidding me. I can be cured?” I closed my eyes and blew out a breath, with a smile creeping over my face. “My dad wasn’t trying to kill me if he gave me that pill.”
“Or he was keeping you out of his head.” Lorcan had to burst my bubble.
I glared at him. “What are you talking about? I was only able to read minds that one time. The powers kept flipping around to new ones, and they’d only last a short hour or so before I was back to normal.”
He shrugged. “He had no way of knowing that. The fact that he gave you a suppression pill says he knew you had been exposed to vampires. He had no reason to think you weren’t farther along the transformation than he thought.”
“How do you know that’s what it was? It could have been a vitamin.”
He put a hand on the top of my head and forced me to look forward to watch the grunt. “All the way to your father’s apartment, I tried to enter your mind. I know that you wanted me there, so you were not throwing up a mental block—if you even knew how to. And I still can’t enter your head, probably for another couple of hours, unless I bite you.”
“Don’t even think about it!” I warned. Then a sound reached us, of a woman’s heels clicking on the ground somewhere nearby. The grunt heard it too and began to change right before my eyes. I could not believe that the willowy thing which had hovered a second before, had now set itself on the ground with two human feet. A ripple raced over his body from the bottom to the top, and the faster it went, the faster the thing became this average sized man wearing a jogging suit.
I began to shake. “What the—?”
Other than those couple of words, I couldn’t speak. The lady rounded the corner, and the thing was on her. I couldn’t tell what it wanted, to suck her blood, to kill her, or what, but she screamed her head off. I looked up and down the street. Nobody came. Lorcan had brought us to the worst area of the city where if you had any common sense you didn’t bring your butt outside after dark. But some people had no choice. You had to work, and if you got off after dark, then that’s the way it was.
“Lorcan, do something!” I begged. “Save her.”
He had the nerve to look confused. “Why?”
“Because she’s a person, and you have the strength to stop it, that’s why.” When he didn’t move, I tried to get out of his arms. He held on. I stomped on his foot with no reaction whatsoever, except those creepy crawly feelings in my ankle. “Let me go, Lorcan.”
“Keep your voice down,” he growled. “They travel in packs often. It’s not likely this one is all alone.”
I let out a shout on purpose. “Hey, you, get your hands off her!”
The thing looked up with big black eyes. I almost threw up in my mouth. The thing let the woman go, and she fell on the ground crying. The creature came at us. I knew Lorcan was going to just pick me up and run, leaving that woman behind, so I tried to distract him.
“More over there,” I shouted. He looked, and I broke free and rolled on the ground like I was some kind of trained spy. Okay, it probably looked crazy, but it felt good. Lorcan didn’t have time to grab me again, because the grunt was all over him snarling and flashing some scary claws. I searched around for a weapon and found a small metal pipe that looked like it had broken off the rail at the side of some steps.
Just in time to crack the second grunt that showed, upside his head, I swung the pipe as hard as I could. The thud of hitting his head made me scream again, but I whipped it a second time. He went down and looked unconscious, but Lorcan was now fighting two more.
I ran over to the woman still crying on the ground. “Are you nuts, lady? Get up, and get out of here unless you want that thing to eat you.” I didn’t wait for her to get up, I yanked on her arm hard enough to dislocate it. That got her moving. In seconds she was on her feet and running down the street.
A flash of white light lit the area, and ear-splitting screeches made me sink to my knees, covering my ears. Lorcan roared. The sound must have been tearing his head apart with his sensitive hearing. I looked over to find him flinging two of the shifters off of his arms. Like a streak of lightning he flashed over to me, snapped me up into his arms, and we shot off down the street in the direction the woman had run. Within a few moments, the grunts were nowhere in sight.
Lorcan continued at top speed until we were back at the lake, and then he let me slide down to the grass. The look he turned on me could have set my hair on fire if he had the power. “Why did you do that?”
I sucked my teeth. “You the one who wanted to hunt grunts.”
He growled and sank down beside me. “I would not have attacked them with you there. You’re a distraction.”
“Oh please, you were getting your butt kicked, and you’re blaming me.”
“I was not!”
“Whatever, Lorcan!”
We were nose to nose. A gentle laugh made us snap out of it, and I looked around. Of all people Adrianne stood there, looking too beautiful as usual. Her pale skin glowed in the moonlight, and her flaming hair made me want a pair of scissors. Her arms were folded under big old half exposed boobs.
“You’re late, Lorcan.” She pointed her chin at me. “For that?”
I jumped to my feet, adrenaline from the fight pumping through me at top speed. “Oh, we can go right now, girlfriend.”
I hadn’t completed a blink before she was on me, hand around my neck. “You sure about that?”
Lorcan jerked her away, a little too hard. She tumbled on her butt, and I laughed out loud.
“I told you to stay away from her, Adrianne.”
“You turn on your own—for a human?”
“Leave it alone.” He gave her his back, but I wasn’t letting her out of my sight. She was sneaky, and I wouldn’t put it past her to do something to Lorcan just to get at me.
On the edges of my mind, I heard whispering, and I knew the pill was wearing off. I decided not to mention it just in case. Adrianne stood up and brushed her butt off. She straightened her short skirt and pulled her top down over it. “He wants to see her. Now. He knows she left her dad’s, so you can’t use that as an excuse.”
I looked at Lorcan. “What’s she talking about?”
“Nothing.” He growled at Adrianne, and I was thinking he sounded more like a werewolf than a vampire at that point. A shiver ran over my body. You know when you’re in over your head, and I so had that feeling right then. It was flashing lights and ringing bells at me. I should go back home and take my chances with my dad. At least I’d known him longer, and he hadn’t killed me yet.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I ain’t nobody’s fool, Lorcan.” I sneered and ran my gaze up and down Adrianne’s body before spinning on my heel and starting to walk off. “I’m going home.”
Lorcan trapped my elbow in a tight grip. I glan
ced back over my shoulder and caught the pitiful expression on his face, like he was apologizing before he sold me out. “I’m sorry, Tanesha. I can’t let you do that.”
“Excuse me?”
“They won’t kill you, I’m sure.” He spread his fingers out and shrugged like that would make it all right.
Adrianne laughed. “Not forever.”
“I can’t believe this,” I shouted. “I thought we—” Adrienne was all ears to know what I was going to say. I wasn’t giving that skank the satisfaction. Without thinking about it, I hauled off and punched Lorcan in the face. I aimed for his big fat lying lips, but missed and hit his jaw. I cried out in pain.
He grabbed my hand and looked at it. “Why did you do that?” Stupid jerk didn’t even feel it.
The second attack was a kick, but this time, I was careful to protect my toes and hit him with the ball of my foot. I managed to knock him off balance and give myself enough time to get my arm free, and then I ran as fast as I could. Of course outrunning either of them was a joke, but I tried. Adrienne was the first to catch me. She slung me around and tried to slap my face, but I blocked her swing. Her eyes widened, and I imagined my face was full of shock too. The energy in my body was building, and I knew if I didn’t gain an advantage over her quick, her years of doing this would outweigh my power that came out only when it felt like it.
So I let her have it. I grabbed a hold of her long hair, spun her around, and shoved with all my strength in time to send her flying into Lorcan’s chest. The power must have been great, because they both slammed to the ground and tumbled until they splashed in a heap inside the water. I wanted to stick around and laugh my head off, but I got out of there. As I ran, I heard their thoughts clear as day.
“How the hell did she do that?” Adrianne complained.
“I don’t know, but it was seriously cool, wasn’t it? She’s amazing.”
My heart warmed hearing the pride in Lorcan’s voice, but I wasn’t stupid enough to trust him again. I had liked him—a lot. I wanted something more with him, but that was shot.
“When I get my hands on her, if the others don’t kill her, I will! What is she anyway?” Adrianne demanded.
Lorcan grumbled. “How do I know? They only tell us so much. But she’s more than a regular human. That’s for sure. I want to know what, but...”
“But you have to follow orders, Lorcan. You know what they’ll do to you if you don’t bring her in.”
After that, the conversation was cut off. I didn’t know if I was too far away or if they had blocked me hearing. It wasn’t until I had jumped on a subway train that I realized how far I had come in such a short time. I didn’t think I’d moved as fast as Lorcan had bringing me to the lake, but it had been about three miles in a few minutes, and I’d never run that fast.
I jumped onto the first train through the station, even though it wasn’t the one that would take me back to my dad’s apartment, or to my home with my mother. I just needed to get away and do some thinking. I wasn’t dead, but I had some kind of latent power. Who was I? Were my parents my real parents, or had I been adopted? One thing was for sure. My dad wasn’t going to admit anything, and now I knew that Lorcan and Adrienne didn’t know much more than I did. What about the others in the coven? Could I trust going to them?
I shook my head as I sat down in a vacant seat. “No way. That’s crazy.”
“Excuse me?”
I looked up to find a woman watching me from across the aisle. Her eyes were so dark and shadowed beneath the hood she wore that I couldn’t see the whites in them. I shivered and hugged myself. “Nothing.”
Suspicion that she was one of them rose in my mind. I scanned the car to see which way I’d need to run if she attacked. The power that had gotten me here had fizzled. I was on my own.
When I looked back at the place where the woman had been sitting, the seat was empty. My heart felt like it was about to choke me. I gasped for breath, looking around. Maybe it was my imagination. Maybe she’d never been there in the first place. If she had been there, she would have taken me, wouldn’t she? I mean, she was a full grown vampire. I was just...well, whatever I was.
“Whatzzzzzzuppp!”
I turned toward the back of the car, and coming through the doors connecting two cars was Blake. I sighed. “Hey, Blake. They sent you for me?”
He dropped into a seat. “Yup. I’m the only one crazy enough to run around in a train when the sun is coming up soon.”
“Oh, you didn’t learn your lesson last time, huh?” I checked our location. We were coming up on Franklin, the first stop where the train moved from below ground to several feet above it. My watch said four-thirty. It didn’t seem like so much time had passed in the little I’d done tonight. This was the first time in my life I had stayed out all night. If I wasn’t in so much danger, I would have gotten a thrill out of it. As it was, I was dog tired. “You look like you healed okay,” I told Blake.
“Yeah, I fed. That always speeds it up.” He lifted his arms out to the sides, and his coat widened making him look like one of those Count Dracula guys who were about to turn into a bat. As usual, Blake’s clothes were dumpy and dark, and it looked like he’d added another piercing to his left ear. “You’re not going to fight me on this, are you, Tanesha? Come on, dude, I think you and me could be buds.”
I rolled my eyes. “Buds? Get real. How do you keep those holes in your ears if your body always heals?”
“Willpower.”
I glared at him. “Fine.”
“Fine, what?”
I stood up. “I’m ready to go with you. I figure if I’m going to find out what’s going on, I should go to the man running the show.”
Blake whistled. “Yeah! Now you’re talking. We’ll be grunt-hunting together in no time. You wait and see.”
Not! That one experience was more than enough. I didn’t want to see those weird creatures ever again, if I could help it.
* * * *
My eyes burned, and my throat was dry. I had been crying for the last hour and a half or more. I couldn’t be sure because they had taken everything—my watch, my cell, even my shoes. I sat huddled in a cold, dark room with only a twin mattress on the floor in the corner. The door was locked from the outside, and I was pretty sure from the scrapes over the cement floor outside the room that someone guarded the door.
Unlike how Lorcan and I traveled together, Blake brought me to his people in style. I had never ridden in a limo, but that’s just what was waiting for us when we climbed the piss-smelling steps from the subway. A sleek black limousine was parked at the curb with a chauffeur beside it. He had his hands crossed in front of him and a hat pulled low on his head, along with sunglasses. At night, mind you.
It wasn’t until I was sliding onto the soft cushion under my butt and gawking at the interior of the car that I realized the windows were tinted really dark. And while we rode, it got later until the sun rose in the sky. I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was out there by the time on my watch.
“Cool, huh?” Blake asked. He touched a button, and a panel slid down revealing all kinds of sodas. “Want something?”
I frowned. “Why is that there? You guys don’t drink it.”
“For you.” He winked. “You get the VIP treatment.”
“Whatever. Did you arrange all this, Blake? You called them?”
He tapped his head. “Yup. See, I know how to do it right, not like that wannabe, Lorcan. He thinks he’s so great because the head man favors him, but I’m the one they can depend on. In the end, I’m the one who got you to come.”
I turned away, rubbing my arms because it was cold in the car. “I don’t’ want to talk about him. Why is it so freakin’ cold in here?”
“Wards off the heat of the sun. Not a good thing, trust me.” He laid across the seat and slipped his hands behind his head, with one ankle crossed over his knee. “Get comfortable. We have a long ride.”
“How can the driver stand it? The sunl
ight, I mean. We’ve got tint here, but there’s no way he would be able to see through that much at the front.”
“Grunt.” Blake yawned.
“Huh?”
“The limo driver is a grunt.”
“Say what!” I would have jumped out of the car if I didn’t think I’d break my neck. “What is that thing doing here? How do you know? I mean he looked regular. Of course he looked regular. They shape shift.”
