"Well look what we have here; the white executioner has come to pay a personal visit." Although she could smell his fear, she could also see his arrogance.
"You are more striking in person executioner, I have to say, you could make me a lot of money working with me rather than against me. Humans are good in the sex trade, vampires even better but you, now you would be a goldmine."
She stepped closer to him, Ice had taught her to show no fear and now she was faced with him she felt no fear only anger "I need you to come with me, you have broken the laws set by the master of the New York City Vampires and punishment is due" she wasn’t sure if that was worded right, she normally left that to Ice.
He laughed in her face, "if you think you are man enough to take me bring it on, I will take you down, and then I will make you part of my enterprise."
"This is the only warning you will get, you are charged with prostituting vampires and humans, and receiving money in return for their services. Unless you come with me immediately the punishment will be death."
"Ah! But whose death white executioner?" She felt rather than saw the threat coming from behind her, she knew it was the man from earlier, and when he grabbed her arm she shifted her body to the side and brought her fist up, hitting him square across the nose, she never took her eyes away from the vampire in front of her. As the man shouted in pain the rest of the room quietened, she now knew all eyes were on her, where the hell was Ice and the others?
"Take your best shot executioner and then it will be my turn." She watched him brace himself, waiting for her to lash out at him. She didn’t want to be predictable, Theo had taught her better than that. So while she continued looking at him she swiftly brought her leg out and kicked him between the legs, she watched him bend forward giving a scream before he lifted back up, his face had transformed, his fangs prominent, he was hissing and was now fixated on her.
Imogen watched as he stood and went to charge her, the anger riding him, making him sloppy. She stepped sideways and he went too far, this time she went in, kicked him in the stomach, satisfied as she watched him fly across the room and slide to the floor. One of the female vampires rushed her from behind; she heard the wind rustle behind her and grabbed the woman by the neck.
"This is your choice, step back and take the punishment for your crimes or face death" the woman’s face was twisted in anger.
"I am not scared of you bitch" the woman kicked out, catching Imogen in the chest, Imogen didn’t move.
"Last chance."
"Fuck you bitch" chance gone, Imogen reached out with her other hand and punched her fist into the woman’s chest, she pulled out the heart and commanded the fire to take it as she threw it into the air. As the fire touched the heart she dropped the woman, as she side stepped the stake that Glen had thrown at her. Taking a run towards him, he ran to her, as they met in the middle he shot his fist out towards her face, she allowed him to make contact and watched the smug look on his face before she plunged her fist into his chest, she watched the look fade as she pulled out his heart, landing on her feet in a crouch, she watched the fear on his face and listened as he bellowed and tried to pull out his gun, she threw his heart high and commanded the fire to take it as he fell to the ground.
Standing back up she looked around the room and something hit her on the back, she turned to face a man who looked about 19 years old, piercing him with a stare as he looked at her and the vase broken on the floor behind her, he shrugged and stepped back as pandemonium broke out.
The men were running out into the hallway, the other vampire was stood against the wall, fear on her face. Imogen knew she was no threat, but never underestimate your opponent. She wished the woman couldn’t move, then she could focus on everything else happening, somehow she got what she wanted, the woman was pinned against the wall. She wasn’t sure how but she wasn’t complaining.
She watched the men who had been running come back into the room, followed by Ice, Shaun and Evan. It was quite comical really, some were naked, others had their flies open and all were terrified, she watched as Ice took control.
"Now gentlemen this is how it works, if you employ vampires you run the risk of dealing with us, I think you have seen the consequences of this and would like to think you won't make that mistake again. Now you are free to leave, but all of your cars have been disabled so will have to walk, there will be a nice policemen waiting at the gates to check your ID's." As one of the men made to grab his pants Shaun stopped him.
"Afraid not fella, you go as you are and I would think again before you decide to use women for your kicks."
Imogen turned to see the human women crowded together at the back of the stage, most tried to cringe further back at her stare, one however stepped forward, she was petite and although she was scared she continued to meet her gaze.
"What do you plan to do with us?" she had an accent, probably European.
"In what way?"
Imogen knew that resigned look; she remembered that feeling as the woman stood to face her, her eyes were dead.
"We know by now how this works, you take out the pimp, you take over, you set the terms and we aide by them. What I want to know is how long we are expected to be in service to you?"
"How long were you to be in service to Glen?" Her heart hurt for these women
"5 more years, we had served 5."
"How did he get you into his service?" Imogen needed to know, she didn’t know why but she did.
"We came illegally into the USA and had to pay off the debt, Glen took out the humans who ran us, so we then owed the debt to him."
Imogen took a deep breath trying to control the rage "consider the debt paid."
She watched the look of disbelief wash over her face as she took in the men behind Imogen "what do you want instead?"
"Nothing."
"And them?" the woman inclined her head towards Ice.
"Nothing." She could see the women on the stage crying in relief but when Ice stepped forward they huddled closer.
"We want nothing from you, I am going to give you a card, if one of you could call me tomorrow we can arrange for you to meet with the Embassy who will help you gain residency here."
The woman didn’t take the card but looked at Ice, Imogen took the card out of his hand.
"Call this number and ask for Imogen, I will come with you and help you" the woman took it from her as she asked that all important question.
"Why?"
Again Imogen took a deep breath, Ice and the other knew she had been attacked before but not the details. But these women were scared and needed help, swallowing her pride.
"Been there, done that, got the scars and also needed a stranger to pick me up and put me back together. Let me be that person for you." The woman nodded as she heard Shaun and Evan gasp, Ice didn’t make a noise but she felt him stiffen as she turned to him.
"Can I have the car keys" he nodded and handed her the keys, she walked out, got into the car and drove away. Ice could get his own way back.
Chapter 22
By the time she arrived back she was shaking, she was furious, she went straight to the gym and started pounding the punch bag. Fifteen minutes later she heard the door open, she knew Ice, Shaun and Evan had come in, she knew their movements.
Ice stopped behind her she turned and hit him full force in the face, she took pleasure in seeing him hurl backwards landing on his ass, he jumped up as she stalked forward and this time she grabbed him by the throat forcing him against the wall.
"Do not leave me to face that shit again, you bastard."
"You didn’t need us, fucks sake Imogen you handled yourself like a professional. I needed to see how you would cope. I didn’t know about the other stuff, shit if I had known I wouldn’t have…" she squeezed his neck.
"What? Go on, what would you have done if you had known that I had been kidnapped, pimped out and beaten into unconsciousness every day for longer than care to remember, what would you have done?"
She was shouting, all the anger and rage of the last few weeks, hell the last few years coming out.
Shaun had stepped closer; he put his hand on hers but used no force.
"He wouldn’t have let you go at all, he made a mistake Imogen, we all did, but the reason he let you go in there alone was because he trusted in your abilities, we all did. We trust you more than you trust yourself. None of us had any idea what you had been through, shit how could we? You need to trust yourself, when you can do that you can trust us. You are stronger than any vampire I have met less than 500 years old, but Imogen you need these tests and situations to see what you are truly capable of. Before tonight you didn’t know you could use your mind to immobilise someone did you, do you know how rare that is, Vlad can do it but he is the only person I have met that can."
As she looked at Ice she realised that he had not fought back, he had taken her anger, he was still looking at her.
"I’m sorry Imogen" she knew he was, she let go and dropped him to the floor, she needed space, so she left the gym and headed to her room. As she closed the door behind her and pulled off her clothes, she leaned against it and cried, she cried for herself, for Theo, for every person who had been beaten and abused. The tears and pain poured from her, she didn’t know how long she stayed there, but when she felt a tap on her arm, she looked up to see War on her knees in front of her.
"I know it doesn’t feel like it, but tonight you faced your biggest fear and came out the victor."
She took Imogen’s hand and pulled her up, she wiped her tears and sat on the bed, Imogen sat next to her.
"Your biggest fear was being forced back into that type of abuse and degradation, tonight you faced that situation, stood tall and fought. Tonight you made a difference to those women, you showed them a strong, confident woman who has been through their own suffering and came out of it stronger. You should be proud of yourself."
War stood and pulled back the covers, motioning for Imogen to get into bed, dressed in her panties and bra she climbed into the bed and watched as War pulled the covers over her and sat back onto the bed.
"You are an amazingly strong woman but sometimes you are your own worst enemy. Your new friends are right though, they won’t be able to trust you until you trust yourself. The broody one, he is trying to help you, although he doesn’t know your past, he wants to be confident that you can protect yourself. Everyone has their own story and as you have yours he has his and believe me when I say he is sorry."
As War stroked her face Imogen felt the tears fall again, this time for a different reason.
"I miss Theo so much, I don’t need to know who I am anymore, I just want him" War continued to stroke Imogen’s face as she continued to cry and eventually fell asleep, the last thing she heard was War.
"Take what you have seen and do something with it, you are more than an avenger, you know what to do."
Chapter 23
Theo was exhausted; he had spent the day training the men and was now teaching Lewis to shoot. Darius had been giving Liza lessons, Theo had tried but every time he handed her a gun, knife or stake, he cringed and took it back, Liza had found this funny so he asked Darius to train her. As he watched Lewis fire again he couldn’t help but be proud, he would be one hell of a warrior someday, his aim was scary. Lewis turned to him with a sigh.
"What’s with the sigh, you did great."
Lewis flopped onto the grass and lay back with his hand over his eyes "I hate being a vampire."
Theo sat close to him but not too close "why, you and Liza will be pretty strong vampires eventually."
"I wish I was a wolf like you are, that would be so cool."
Looking at his tiny frame, he had to smile "that’s a shame because recently I have wondered what it would be like being a vampire?"
The hand moved from over his face, and Lewis looked at him suspiciously "really, I have."
"Why?"
"It’s hard to explain but it involves a woman I know, so you probably don’t want to hear it."
Lewis sat up "I do, but if it involves mushy stuff like kissing just skip those parts."
Theo laughed "I'll try, here goes, well there is this woman called Imogen and I have sort of loved her for a long time" he watched Lewis roll his eyes.
"Urgh Theo you said..."
Laughing Theo continued "sorry anyway Imogen is the strongest woman I have ever met, not physically but in here (he pointed to his heart), about a month ago she was attacked by vampires and somehow transformed into one. Now as you know some of my closest friends are vampires."
"Like Darius?"
"Like Darius, but for Imogen this is all new and really scary for her, I wanted to be there for her, but I don’t really truly understand what it’s like being a new vampire and all of the ones I know are so old they can’t remember being new. Anyway, so it’s been really hard for her and I am not sure how best to help her. What she really needs is some younger vampires who can help her get used to all of the changes."
Lewis was looking excited "will she be there when we go to your house?"
"I hope so."
"Then I have a great plan" he had sat up with a huge smile on his face.
Theo looked at Lewis pretending to be confused "you do, what is this plan?"
"Well I don’t really hate being a vampire but I want to be useful to you, I want to be part of your pack."
"You don’t have to be a wolf for that, you have to have honour and loyalty, work hard, be you and make friends."
"Yeah Leyland said that but I wasn’t sure he was telling the truth. Anyway I believe you, but what if me and Liza helped Imogen understand what being a vampire is like, we can show her how to be a good vampire, not like mom."
"I think she would like that" and the truth was he did think she would, well he hoped she would.
"Urmm Lewis, what do you mean mom is a vampire?" Lewis must have made a mistake.
"Duh of course she is, my dad converted her" Bloody marvellous, his mother was not only psychotic, she was a psychotic vampire. He felt the tingle down his spine.
"Hey Nina" Lewis was in a chatty mood today, he turned around to find Nina behind him "hello my little warrior, I see you shooting aim is improving, excellent." At Theo’s inquiring look she faced him "I thought the name Nina seemed softer for the children."
Smiling at her Theo could see the warm look on her face when she watched Lewis.
"Now Lewis I need to borrow Theo for a while, Sylvia is waiting for you, she has some cookies that have just out of the oven."
Lewis jumped up and down "really, do you want some Nina?"
Nina laughed "now I like the sound of that let me take Theo where I need him to be and I will come for my cookie, so save me one." He waited until Lewis was out of earshot before he questioned her
"What’s happened is, is everyone one at Silver’s okay" she nodded and he felt his heart fall "so it’s Imogen, tell me she’s okay, oh gods please."
"Don’t panic she isn’t injured, but she does need you, walk with me."
As they wandered through the forest she continued "do you trust me Theo?"
"You know I do."
"Imogen needs you, not to protect her but to love and comfort her. She is on the path to understanding but as you know it’s not always an easy one. I will take you to her, but neither of you can ask about the other’s paths."
"Why?" He had stopped and could see the frustration on Nina’s face "I can’t answer that, I am sorry. But if you agree to that I will take you to her."
The Kiss of a Vampire, the Heart of a Wolf (The Silver Series) Page 16
