The Kiss of a Vampire, the Heart of a Wolf (The Silver Series)

by Samantha Bates

  Nothing more than a momentary satisfaction to end in complete frustration and longing, a longing so intense it hurt. He didn’t know how much more he or his wolf could take, being away from your mate was unnatural for them, his wolf was becoming more agitated, he was feeling more bereft with every day that passed.

  As he made his way down the stairs, he found Connor in the kitchen chatting to Vadoma, considering the threat she knew was coming to her village she was always smiling, cheering the villagers up, working hard with the men and women.

  A friend of Vadoma’s had visited yesterday, she was a witch who had been a friend of hers for many years, she had provided some wards around the village, they wouldn’t stop the enemy getting into the village but it would alert the village to trespassers. As the village was on a hill it would provide them a vantage when attacking the enemy, but they needed more. In a couple of days Theo was due to return to New York to collect additional weapons and materials, War no Nina, was taking him and he was looking forward to seeing Celia and his friends. Darius had given Ben a list of materials he wanted to make some more small explosive charges. The vampire liked explosives way too much.

  As he went downstairs out into the village square he rounded everyone up and put them through a workout that left them all hot and sweaty, most of the other's took the tops off, Theo didn’t, he did feel a little guilty not telling the men the goddesses were watching but they could use a few more goddesses looking out for them.

  Chapter 18

  For her first night out patrolling with Ice she was somewhat apprehensive, not of the darkness, that no longer bothered her, there were some benefits to the wicked new vision. It was Ice that worried her, he was brutal. Tonight he had taken her into downtown New York, just the two of them, they had strolled through the numerous drug pushers and prostitutes, he had frowned when she handed some money to the prostitutes, but just continued on his way. When a pimp tried to warn him off his patch, Ice just knocked him out and went on his way. Now they were outside a warehouse.

  It was huge, there was at least 3 floors, the lower two floors didn’t seem to have any windows intact. Imogen couldn’t see any lights inside or out but she could feel the presence of several people inside and for some reason she knew they were vampires. He surely wasn’t planning on them going in alone, there could be hundreds of them in there.

  "How many?"

  "Huh" did he really want an answer?

  "I don't know" she followed this with a shrug.

  "Close your eyes and think about it" not sure what he expected her to achieve but she closed her eyes.

  "Four vampires and a human I think".

  "Good let's go," he pulled the backpack from his back, taking out two stakes he started forward before she grabbed his arm.

  "What about me?"

  He laughed, he actually laughed, could he be crazy? "Tonight I will take them out, you take notes and try not to get yourself killed" and with that he left. She had to run to catch up with him, when she did he was sliding in through a door that was ajar, the smell of rubbish and urine was strong, but she followed anyway and immediately heard a male crying "please no, not again." She shivered as memories tried to push through, taking a breath she stopped them and kept following. There was still no lighting but as they rounded the corner she could clearly see the four vampires, she could also see a male on the floor.

  "Evening folks, mind if we join you?" Remembering his words she stood tall next to him, she watched their faces as they realised who was in front of them.

  "Shit the Ice man" was whispered by one, well at least the people on the street were also scared of him. A female vampire stepped forward.

  "Forgive us, we recognise that we have broken the laws of our leader, we became carried away," she was coming closer, Imogen was trying to keep her in her sights as well as the other's.

  "You ask for forgiveness yet you offered this man none, each of you has broken the laws of Vladmire Tchacovski and therefore you will each be arrested and handed over to the PTF unit where you will be sentenced."

  Imogen was actually quite impressed, he wasn’t overbearing or bullying, he was actually following the law. The female seemed to think she could play games though.

  "Thank you kind one, however is there any way we can avoid that, I am sure you understand the difficulties our species face in confined spaces. I am sure we could work something out." Imogen watched in amazement as she tried to get closer to him, Ice put his hand up to prevent any closer contact.

  "Not only are you breaking the law but you are trying to corrupt an upholder of the law. Now remain where you are," she watched him slide his mobile open, still maintaining eye contact with the female, he punched a number and within seconds he was relaying the details to a third party. If she had guess she would assume it was the PTF and when he gave them their location Imogen further guessed someone would be coming to collect them.

  As soon as Ice hung up the phone she saw a movement to the right, without moving Ice threw a stake piercing the vampire straight through the heart, the female took her chance and tried to step into him, with his other hand he punched through her chest cavity and removed her heart. Another rushed at her, her heart jumped into her throat but she didn’t move until her was close enough for her to copy Ice. She too punched her hand through his chest cavity, reached in and pulled out his heart, it was disgusting, but the vampire fell immediately so she must have done something right. Looking at the heart in her hand, her stomach lurched.

  "Throw it up and picture a flame, let's see if it works." Imogen didn’t think it would, she couldn’t imagine it working, but it did, she nearly did a little dance until she realised the other one had decided to run off. As she stepped forward Ice put out his hand.

  "Let him go, the human is the priority" oh god how had she forgotten that, a man lay there suffering and she was going to run off, surely that wasn’t right, why had she forgotten the man?

  "Don’t beat yourself up about it Imogen, lets deal with this first" he made another phone call informing them there was no longer anyone to collect but they would need an ambulance.

  That was the start of their night, they went on to find two further situations like that, Ice would get a phone call and he would head out, she would follow.

  By 5am she was exhausted, she was relieved to be sat in the passenger seat of the 4x4 heading back to Vlads to sleep. As they headed through the city and out the other side, she felt something, something was wrong.

  "Stop," Ice slowed the car to a stop, she got out and this time he followed her, "tell me what you are feeling?"

  "I am not really sure, there’s some sort of thing in an alley" she couldn’t really say why or how she knew this but she did. Ice didn’t question her just followed, she was amazed the streets were deserted, but she did see curtain twitch in the top window of the apartments next to a dark alley.

  "Down there."

  Ice stopped her so they could listen, and then she felt stupid, the only sounds they heard were from dogs devouring something someone had clearly left them. Great, now Ice would have a reason to give her shit,

  "sorry I thought" but he stopped her, lifting his finger to his lips he whispered for her to stay put, he stepped into the alley and coughed. The noise stopped, he told her to stay put but she couldn’t, she tilted her head round the wall and nearly gasped, there must have been at least 7 vampires, all rushing at Ice.

  Should she wait or jump in, maybe she should just hold on a minute and step in if things were getting out of hand. She had to admit he was damn good, within seconds he had taken out 2 of them, 3 more rushed him but it was the one who was looking towards the fire escape that worried her, if he jumped on Ice from above then he would be in trouble. Just as she was contemplating jumping in the door to the apartments slid open.

  "Excuse me Miss but are you alright?" An old man was poking his head slightly out, "this neighbourhood isn't safe anymore, go home."

  ‘The fire escape?’ the old
man nodded and she ran through the door. She ran up his stairs and climbed out of the window about 3 flights up, looking down she saw the vampire leap up onto the landing below her; he looked over and then started up the stairs. Trying to be as quiet as possible she waited until he was near the top and then kicked him full in the face, he fell backwards onto the landing below. She jumped down as he got up.

  "You fucking bitch" he came at her with his fist, aiming at her face, she ducked sideway and punched him to the side hitting his kidneys, it didn’t matter what species you were a kidney shot hurt like hell, he fell against the railing before pulling a knife out of his pocket. Aiming at her he lunged, it was poor attempt, she grasped his wrist and squeezed really hard, she heard a crack and he squealed as he dropped the knife, she didn’t want to do it again but it was the fastest way, she plunged her hand into his chest and ripped his heart away. He dropped as she pictured the fire. Looking down there was only Ice left and he was watching her.

  "Take your time Imogen, the sun will be here to say hello soon". Sarcastic asshole! Feeling slightly impulsive she jumped over the railings and landed on her feet, go Imogen. Ice started walking to the car and again she was left following. By the time they arrived back at the house she was exhausted, as she climbed out of the car, Ice finally spoke.

  "Well done tonight, you did good, just get quicker" and he walked off. It might have been only a half compliment but it made her feel good, real good.

  Chapter 19

  Imogen was excited which was ridiculous, she was going home, well sort of, she would be home for a few hours at most but still it was better than nothing. She would see Celia, god how she missed her. Vlad had decided to join her and Ice, they were going to see May about her blood but she didn’t care about the reason.

  Ice and Vlad were waiting for her by the time she had showered. Ben knew they were coming, he had checked on her twice in the last week, which she really appreciated. She had even had a sparring session with him, he was strong and definitely well trained, but she thought she had held her own.

  Vlad and Ice spent most of the journey talking about some internet business Vlad was involved with. Imogen just sat back in the car and watched the world go by, the closer they got to Silvers the more relaxed she started feeling. By the time they drove through the gates she actually felt happy. Celia was waiting outside the house when they pulled up, Beth was with her. She ran to meet her and Imogen hadn’t realised just how much she had missed Celia until she held her in her arms.

  Ben and Lucky came out to meet them, and the next 2 hours flew by, everyone was chatting, catching up, the triplets were keen to show off their fighting skills by hitting each other. Ben was actually a rather good referee. Beth seemed somewhat subdued but when Imogen asked Celia about it she shrugged her off.

  When May arrived she was all professional and doctor like, asking Imogen questions and writing notes. Deciding she needed to run test she had Danny fetch her things from her room and promptly declared Imogen needed to come to Sylvia and Leylands house where she could look at the report and take some samples. Apparently she had an actual real life specialist helping her via Skype, it was someone Ben had made links with who would be able to help May develop to her full potential.

  When they left the house she was surprised to see Ice following, "sorry to interrupt but I think I owe you a debt of gratitude" May stopped and turned to him.

  "You do, why?"

  "I believe you helped save my life last year." Initially May looked confused but then the penny dropped.

  "You’re the vampire who went to the Amazon!"

  "I am, I would have thanked you sooner but I didn’t realise who you were." So Ice could be humble, that was good to know.

  "It was fascinating really, have you had any side effects?"

  He was shaking his head "if there is anything I could do to thank you, please let me know."

  May stood looking at him, Imogen could almost see the cogs in her brain turning, not only was she smart but she was becoming a very attractive young lady, with her bright, enquiring eyes, long hair and glasses.

  "If you wanted to thank me, you could let me interview you and then retest your blood to compare the samples from last time." Imogen smiled although 30 minutes later both she and Ice were sat side by side while May fussed with pulse rates, heart monitors and blood pressure equipment the smile had gone, and May was in her own world.

  By the time May had finished with them, they had submitted to numerous test, been interviewed by May and then again by some professor in Canada, provided both blood and urine samples, had DNA swabs taken and Imogen had also given a hair sample so May could attempt to work out why her hair colour had changed.

  On the plus side, May and her colleague had studied the report provided by Vlad and then checked the sample, although they also saw the mutations they did note that the rate of change seemed to be slowing. They wanted to test Imogen fortnightly until further notice but they hypothesised that her new powers would stabilise as the mutations slowed. They found no evidence of any deterioration which did make Imogen feel more at ease.

  Rather than going back to Ben's Imogen went home, but only went in long enough to collect the keys to Theo's. From the second she opened the door she could sense him, everything was him. Wandering around, she could picture them here, her, him, Celia. As she lay on his bed, her whole body ached for him; the pillows still held his scent and the tears fell. She wasn’t sure how long she lay there but Imogen knew she needed to move. She found Lucky outside when she left.

  "Hey Imogen, I got a little worried about you, you okay?" Imogen sat down next to Lucky.

  "I'm okay…. No actually I'm not, I miss him so much, I don’t know how much longer I can be without him" her voiced cracked and Lucky hugged her.

  "You will get through this, you know that don’t you?" Nodding, Imogen did know that, but the pain was getting worse. They sat in comfortable silence for a while; Imogen just enjoyed the companionship.

  "I suppose we need to head out."

  Lucky laughed "oh I don’t know, when I left, Oliver was jumping on Vlad, Logan was climbing on Ice's back and Ethan was hanging onto Ben's leg."

  "Well now I do need to get back, I need to co-ordinate the boys into attack Ice all together."

  Chapter 20

  Nina had given him some background on how his mother worked, it sounded like she was predictable. That could give them an advantage, following a pattern was the biggest mistakes made in battles, it allows the enemy to plan around you. Clearly his mother had missed that lesson. Theo headed to the garden where Liza was sat on a tire swing hanging from a tree branch.

  "Morning princess" as she looked up she smiled, when they were adults both she and Lewis would be strong vampires both physically and mentally. They were already strong, but in Liza there was immense gentleness that just radiated from her.

  "Hey Theo, it’s pretty out here, I love the sun and being surrounded by the forest, it always makes me feel so calm and relaxed" Theo stood behind her and pushed the swing, she had been through so much for such a young girl but she continued to smile.

  "Do you know what I have always wanted?"

  "Surprise me" he watched her zipping through the air, the cool breeze making her hair fly outwards, her head tipped back so he could see the big smile across her face.

  "A climbing frame with a slide, I saw lots of them when we were travelling and they looked like so much fun."