by Fall, Carly
As Aiden tried to get a handle on himself, he wondered how many more times his subconscious was going to cough up that dream and reinforce the pain and anger that seemed to flow through his veins, not to mention reminding him of the biggest fail of his life.
After a while, he was able to go back to sleep.
Chapter 6
Natalie strolled through the red brick path of the Rose Garden. She admired the blooms of red, pink, yellow, and white, while chatting with another woman named Kay who had died in a car crash and also left a son behind. Kay had died in her early forties. As her white heavenly robes swirled around her, her face lit up with the memories of her child, spreading smile lines around her eyes. Her long blonde hair swirled around her slim shoulders. Natalie had found an immediate bond with Kay because they had both died before their children.
They talked about their kids, the only difference being that Kay's child was now in his fifties. Natalie guessed that in Kay's eyes, he was still the thirteen-year-old boy she had left behind.
In the Rose Garden it was always that perfect time of twilight, where the sun still made the sky bright, but it hung just beyond the horizon, creating a rainbow of reds, pinks, and oranges in the sky. It was a beautiful place.
Natalie listened as Kay told of her excitement of seeing her son. "It shouldn't be long," she said. "Neither side of the family has genes that allow for a long life."
Even though Kay hadn't been able to check up on her family in forty years because they had all let her go, she was certain that she would see her son soon, simply because of his age.
"I just hope he didn't turn out like his father," Kay mumbled. Apparently after Kay's death, her husband had turned to a life of burglary and ended up killing someone. He was currently residing in the basement of eternity known as Hell.
Just then Natalie doubled over, pain lancing through every cell in her body and tears sprang to her eyes.
Kay knew what was going on. She had been Natalie's friend for the past five years.
"Oh, no. Okay, baby doll, let's get you back to your home," Kay said as she helped Natalie to her feet. "That boy has to let you go or you're going to die all over again."
Natalie couldn't argue with that, because it certainly felt like she was at death's door. Again. How many times did she need to be brought to this state?
As they walked along, something pulled Natalie's eyes to the area where the Inner Circle met The Fringe. There stood Mark.
Natalie smiled, and made her way over to him with Kay's help. She noticed Kay eye Mark warily. Kay didn't know about Natalie's friendship with him.
"Hey, Natalie," he said, taking a sip of a clear liquid in a glass.
She nodded, not quite able to speak.
Kay asked if she should leave and if Natalie would be okay, and Natalie said yes to both. She figured the less Kay knew about her clandestine operation with Mark the Angel of The Fringe, the better. How she was going to make it back to her quarters, she didn't know, but she would manage. She watched as Kay disappeared into the heart of the Inner Circle.
"Hi, Mark," she said quietly, as she grimaced.
Mark shook his head. "Is he still at it?"
Natalie nodded, a tear trickling down her face.
"That dumb cocksucker," Mark muttered. "You want some of this?" He offered her his glass. She looked around to make sure no one was watching them, and she took the glass and all the liquid in one gulp. Vodka. God bless its numbing effects, and curse the burn as it went down.
"So have you checked in lately?" he asked. He wanted to know if she had watched any of the TV linking her to the Earth.
She shook her head. "I haven't watched since Aiden was beaten on the street. I know he isn't dead because I checked the death registers. I guess . . . I guess I'm just not sure I want to know what's going on."
Mark nodded. "I won't fill you in on any details then, but let's say that our friend Aiden is in a good place. He doesn't realize that yet, but he is. I think you're on your way to freedom, Natalie."
She nodded. She imagined a life without this pain, and hoped Mark was right. She marveled at his kindness for undertaking the huge job of finding Aiden and setting him on the right path, and for sticking with it. She didn't understand why Aiden always referred to Mark as "that Angel Fucker" in his thoughts.
"Is he going to do something with the information I gave him about Victor Marano being my killer?"
Mark shrugged. "I don't know the specifics of the plan, but I would guess Aiden will be hunting that guy down until his dying day.
"Are you back for a while?" Natalie asked.
Mark nodded. He figured he would go down again in a day or two, check in with Thaddeus and see what was shaking. For now, he was looking forward to kicking it with his boys in the bar.
They said their goodbyes, and each went their separate ways.
Chapter 7
Aiden was certain nightfall was approaching. He looked at the clock that said five with a big PM next to it. Evening. Darkness would be here soon. He had been right, so score one for the brain cells that now seemed to be functioning on some level.
His gaze moved to the chair where Holly usually sat, but it was empty. His eyes wandered to the other side of the room, and he was shocked to find her curled up on the other side of the bed.
She looked so small, so fragile, laying on her side in a fetal position facing him. He wondered if the reason she always curled into herself was a subconscious defense mechanism.
Her hair was once again an unruly mess, and he smiled. He watched as her eyes darted back and forth under her eyelids, her soft lips parted, a breezy breath escaping them. She was still in that t-shirt and sweatpants. As if she sensed she was being watched, her eyes flew open to meet his.
She gasped, sat up, and swung her feet off the bed. It was as if she were gathering herself for a moment before she turned to him and cleared her throat. “I assume with your advanced healing abilities that you're feeling better.”
Aiden nodded. “I was wondering if I could get a glass of water and a phone,” he asked quietly.
She nodded, and went out of the room to fetch what he needed.
When she returned, he drank the water in a couple of gulps, and then dialed Thaddeus’s cell phone.
“Who's this.” the male growled. It wasn’t a question.
“It’s me,” Aiden said quietly. Despite the low buzz in his head, he didn’t have the energy for a quick comeback or some name calling, which would have been the usual between the brothers.
“Aiden? Where the hell have you been? You okay?”
Aiden heard a rustle and then Emily, Thaddeus's human mate's, soft voice questioning Thaddeus. He heard Thaddeus cover the phone and tell her to hold on. Aiden imagined they were still in bed and had just woken up for the evening.
“I’m fine,” Aiden said, looking up at Holly. She watched him carefully, her navy blue eyes rolling as he partially lied. “I’m safe.”
“Let me know where you are. I can do a pick up,” Thaddeus said.
Holly shook her head, obviously hearing Thaddeus’s end of the conversation. “I can’t let you travel. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow night,” she said quietly.
“Who the fuck is that?” Thaddeus asked.
“Tell him to mind his own business,” Holly barked back.
“Tell her you are my business,” Thaddeus said coldly.
“Tell him to go to—
Aiden cut her off. “Can I talk to Robert, Thaddeus?”
After a pause, Thaddeus said, “Hold on.”
Aiden heard sheets rustling and Thaddeus mumbling something to Emily. He waited another minute, hearing Thaddeus scold the boys for not finishing their homework before playing Wii. Homework, Aiden thought. It seemed as though shit had changed some since he had disappeared.
“Dad?”
***
The phone call had drained Aiden. Happy to talk to Robert, he was also forced to talk to Thaddeus again. The male had given Aiden
a brief rundown of all the drama and action he had missed since being demoted to a slab of meat laying on a pretty bed.
While Aiden was getting the shit kicked out of him on the streets of Reno, apparently their mother, Rusalka had decided to pay a visit to Thaddeus. This made Aiden’s balls tight, and not in a good way. He hated her with a dangerous passion and was happy that he had missed the family reunion. When old Mom found out that Thaddeus was with a human, Emily, who wasn't going to be dinner, she decided to uphold The Council's Behavior Doctrine and kill Thaddeus. Thankfully, Mother Nature had stepped in and put a stop to it. Then the ethereal being announced that Emily was pregnant with a vampire child—a girl. Oh yeah, and she also made Emily immortal. If Aiden hadn’t been lying down, someone could have pushed him over in his boots with little effort. A female vampire being born. To his brother and his mate. Wow. Just. Wow.
Their brother Cyril had also moved in with six computers. And then Thaddeus dropped the little diddy that by the power of The Creator, Mother Nature had put Thaddeus in charge of the Vampire Nation. The Council was out. Over. Done with. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass.
Aiden heard hammers pounding, and when he was sure the sound wasn’t coming from his own brain, he asked Thaddeus about it. Thaddeus told him that Emily was in nesting mode or some shit like that. Aiden smiled. He remembered when him and Natalie, his dead mate, moved into their cottage in Mexico. She had gone nuts with the whole decorating thing, determined to make the cottage a home for them. When Thaddeus said it went beyond a little decorating and involved erecting walls, Aiden found himself laughing and his ribs hurting like a bitch. Thaddeus had been whipped by the female, and it was good for him. Emily's presence had put the brakes on Thaddeus's whoring, and he was more than happy to have her in his life.
“Let me come and get you, Aiden,” Thaddeus said after the talk had subsided. You've been missing for three nights now."
Aiden considered it, and every cell in his body was screaming a lot of no way. Besides, he needed some time to get his barely-working brain around all of the news Thaddeus had piled on him.
“I'm good where I'm at, Thad,” he said quietly. But he wasn’t sure why he had said it, just a feeling within himself. He didn’t think a car ride would kill him at this point, but he looked around the small bedroom, thought of Holly, and felt like he was where he was supposed to be. Whatever that meant. Considering he had done nothing but almost get Holly burned alive by the sun while she got him out of the hospital, puked all over her bathroom, taken over her bed, and flashed his ass at her…yeah, well…not exactly the stellar house guest.
He didn’t bother telling Aiden that his cute little nurse with the pretty butt was also a female vampire, something neither of them had seen in about seventy-five years. He had told her that her secret would be safe, and if he was anything, he was a vampire of his word. He had every intention of letting her go and pretending he had never seen the female. The thought made his chest hurt, but he decided he had breathed too deeply and his ribs were jacking into his lungs. And motherfucker, did it hurt.
After disconnecting with Thaddeus, he set the phone down on the nightstand and laid his head back on the pillow, completely drained. Shortly after, the bedroom door opened again and Holly came through carrying a tray of food. It smelled good, and Aiden’s gut let out a yowl of approval.
As he sat up, she set the tray down across his lap. “Eat,” she commanded, and went back to her chair to make sure he abided by her command.
She didn’t have to tell him twice. Even though he hated being bossed around, as this female seemed accustomed to doing, he didn’t argue. Need for nourishment overrode the “piss off” that usually accompanied a command from another.
The soup was a warm broth, and he felt the heat and nourishment to his bones. He finished in a couple of minutes and wiped his mouth with the paper napkin on the tray. As he went to set the bowl down on the floor, she got up from her chair and walked over to get it. She left the bedroom and the returned a few minutes later, and went back to her chair.
He put his head back on the pillows, and closed his eyes. Oddly enough, he wasn't uncomfortable with her there, or with the silence.
“What’s it like being a member of The Council’s Dark Forces.” She didn’t ask the question, but again demanded a response. He felt his mouth try to tug into a smile. Yeah, strange feeling on this one. He wasn’t used to people demanding anything from him, and the fact that he didn’t have the energy or desire to tell her to go to hell and quit being so demanding made him want to smile.
“What do you want to know,” he quipped back in the same tone, raising his eyes so he could look at her.
She shrugged her shoulders and looked away from him, her eyes traveling upward. She had the same habit he did of looking for answers where they didn’t lie. He always seemed to look for the answers he sought on the floor; she looked to the ceiling.
“I don’t know,” she said. “From what I've read, you all do a lot of killing our people. You're ruthless, doing the bidding of The Council.” She then looked directly at him. “There are no second chances where you and your brothers are concerned. You would much rather kill than talk. It doesn’t matter what our people want or need, it's all about what The Council wants.”
"And where exactly did you read this?" he asked, curious. He didn't know there were actual documents out there somewhere about him or his brothers.
"There are those in the Vampire Nation who believe in documenting our history. They have gathered stories of our races history, dating all the way back to The Council. I know all about your mother, Rusalka. I've read about you, and I have read about that male Thaddeus you were talking to on the phone, and the others brothers Rusalka gave birth to. In the age of computers, it has all gone online, for everyone in the Vampire Nation to read."
He looked at her and wondered if the entire race thought along the same lines—that him and his brothers were a bunch of blood thirsty animals who did nothing but bow down to The Council. He assumed they did. They couldn't be more wrong. Sure, Thaddeus had been trained to be a brutal fighter, but his main strength was in diplomacy and leadership. The guy could talk the green off of trees. Cy would much rather pound a computer keyboard than kill someone, although he was highly trained in the art of death and had put that training to use. The rest of his brothers, well, he hadn’t seen them in about twenty years, some of them more, but from what he remembered, they weren't bloodthirsty killers. Shit changed, people changed, and he wasn’t going to make the call on their loyalty, or lack thereof, to The Council.
Another obvious problem was that it seemed no one of the Vampire Nation seemed to understand the Dark Forces—if they didn't do their jobs, if they didn't follow the wishes of The Council, then they were killed. It was a matter of survival for them, along with a desire to follow the rules as a soldier was meant to.
Now, if you wanted to apply the term bloodthirsty killer to him, then he could kind of see that. Not that he craved spilling blood, but he loved a good fight. He loved the hunt.
He would have to let Thaddeus know of this documented history and have someone go through it for accuracy, especially on the part about the Dark Forces. If their stories were going to be told, then they should at least be truthful.
“Council’s not in charge anymore,” he said quietly. He watched her face for a reaction, and when she showed none, he closed his eyes.
“Seems Mother Nature showed up, and by the order of The Creator, she put my brother Thaddeus in charge, which is good. He’s a good choice for a leader. Thad also told me that his Eternal Mate will be giving birth to a female vampire. His mate is a human. So, yeah, shit's changing, Holly.”
He heard her gasp, but didn’t open his eyes. The jackhammer was back, but thankfully it was jabbing at his brain in low speed.
Silence filled the air for a few minutes.
“I don’t believe you,” she said quietly, but vehemently. “You’re just saying all of this so
that I'll come out of my safe little life and you can turn me over to those bastards so I can pop out a few babies for them. You can forget it, Aiden."
He opened his eyes to watch her exit. He noticed that her eyes were a darker blue as her fists clenched at her sides. Now a smile made its way to his mouth, and he lifted his hand up to feel it. He was certain of two things: first, his sweet little nurse had a bit of hellcat in her. Second, he didn't like the way she thought he was lying to her. At all. But he didn't know what to do to gain her trust, and frankly, he wondered why he cared. Somehow, that bossy little vampire had wormed her way into the part of him that he had shut down after Natalie's death. Shocked, he realized that he was beginning to care about Holly, and care what she thought of him. He waited for the guilt to come, but it didn't this time.
Huh.
Chapter 8
Holly paced the living room floor above her bedroom. She hadn't bothered turning on the lights as the moon hung brightly in the sky illuminating the room. He had to be lying. Had to be. Didn’t he? She had been running for so long, immersed herself in the human population for so many years, always looking over her shoulder, she couldn’t imagine that all of it may be coming to an end, and all may be righted in the Vampire Nation. That she could go back to living among her own kind without any fear.
She was so situated in the human world, she almost considered herself human, except for the pesky little details like the blood she needed to survive and the fact she couldn’t go out into the sun. She had done everything in her power to make her actions and her life mirror those of a twenty-something, single human female, even though she was two hundred years old.
She stopped pacing the small living room and looked at her watch. Her roommate Sara would be home soon, completing the day shift as a cocktail waitress at one of the casinos. Her roommate was human, but the arrangement worked well. With Holly working the nightshift and Sara working during the day, they rarely saw each other, but when they did, they got along. The fact that they both worked opposite schedules made Holly feel like she lived in the house by herself most of the time.
