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

by Samantha Bates

  "It’s a good job we parked the truck about 100 yards that way" Mitch was smiling, in fact he was always happy particular nearing a battle.

  Most of the camp had gone into the RV for what looked like a meeting, no doubt to plan.

  The leprechaun dozed off, they made their way into the camp, hiding between the two vehicles for a minute before Theo slipped out and sidled up behind the snoring leprechaun. Sliding his blade out of the sheath on his hip, he ran the blade over the Leprechauns neck and slowly placed him on the floor, he took the knife to the prisoners, motioning with his lips to hush.

  Leyland and Mitch did the same and in the space of two minutes all of the prisoners were free. He motioned for them to follow, stressing the silence. Leyland led them, Mitch stayed in the middle as they led them out of camp, with Theo coming up the rear. Everything was silent, when one of the elderly prisoners fell and cried out his heart literally stopped. To be caught now would almost certainly result in their deaths, they were outnumbered. Everyone stopped, they could hear the sounds of the forest, the deer moving, owls hooting, but nothing came from the RV.

  Another two minutes later, everyone was loaded and as Mitch started the engine they heard a shriek of anger, well she had noticed then. Mitch gunned the engine racing up the hill.

  When they arrived, Theo saw Darius fighting the vampire’s she had sent, the wolves and tiger stood to one side growling, clearly trying to stay out of the fight. Darius was in good form.

  "Get them inside the village hall. Leyland try and get the band from the child’s neck," pointing at the child shifter Leyland nodded. He turned to where the tiger stood ready for battle.

  "We have your son."

  "Really?"

  "Look to your right" he watched as the tiger saw his son, "thank you."

  "Don’t thank me, shift to human and help them break that damned band"

  Theo pulled out the heart of one vampire as he passed. Darius continued fighting the other two, Theo slid up behind one and plunged his hand into the vampires chest from behind, pulling out the heart, "coward", the vampire hissed at him as he turned and dropped to the ground. He watched as Mitch followed behind him and decapitated him, before he moved off.

  "Be a coward or dead, I know what I prefer" and then they were all gone. Now it was time to wait for the next ambush which he couldn’t imagine coming until the morning.

  After checking on the twins who insisted on coming with him to the village hall, he met with the now free hostages and the tiger who was as Theo suspected, a brute of a man. As Theo introduced himself the tiger shook his hand.

  "Thank you. I owe you my life and my son’s. We will help however we can." Theo looked to where Mitch was trying to remove the band.

  "We have tried brute force, knives, spells and herbs with no luck, we need to get it off" he tried again to pry it open, Theo tried, everyone did. Theo watched the boy’s face, he was scared but he betrayed none of this on the surface, he sat patiently even when some attempts caused him pain.

  "Hey Theo, what are they doing?"

  "Hey princess" Liza put her hand in his as she watched people trying to remove the band "they are trying to get that band off."

  "Well they won’t get it off that way, there are symbols at the front, you need to trace them in the right order" he looked down at her, she was so flippant but amazing.

  "Do you know the order?" Liza shrugged.

  "I won’t know until I have tried, but I can normally understand symbols, it's really odd but when I see them it's like a math sum I can see the answer."

  "Ready to try?" he walked forward holding her hand.

  "Let Liza try" she looked embarrassed as people watched her; she stood in front of the boy.

  "Could you sit down please, you are too tall," he watched the boy comply and then Liza stood tilting her head to see the symbols.

  "I need something small to trace them," Vadoma stepped forward and handed her a hair slide.

  "Theo" she nodded for him to come forward "will the tiger eat me if I get this wrong?" he kissed her head.

  "Would I let that happen?"

  It was the tiger who stepped forward "no the tiger will not hurt you" he took his son’s hand in his ‘go ahead please. Liza concentrated for a little longer and then started tracing the symbols moving in different directions, he could see her concentration but when she finished and the band snapped open falling in half, the crowd cheered, the tiger hugged his son, Theo gave Liza a big hug, the boy hugged Liza too.

  The tiger moved towards them "now we fight with you" the crowd cheered again. Slowly as the sun rose, the village quietened and shut down, the tigers had gone to stay with Mitch and an elderly couple.

  Chapter 27

  The patrols were set; he was due out at 6am, so after settling the twin’s, he climbed into bed. No sooner had he closed his eyes then Connor interrupted.

  "The trap on the west has been breached" jumping up he got dressed, packing his weapons as he moved through the house, Vadoma was waiting on the landing. They had set small trip wires around the perimeter, it wasn’t much but it did give them a small head start on the warnings.

  "It is more vampires?"

  "The north has been breached" this time it was Mac signalling him. Banging on the doors he woke the house, Vadoma started the two way radio contact with the other residents in the village.

  "Theo there are at least 10 of them this time" he looked at Vadoma inquiringly "a vision," Lewis came out fully dressed and at Theo’s surprise he answered

  "I slept dressed, thought it would be quicker."

  "Good idea" Liza was sleepy eyed but also dressed.

  "He made me." He kissed them both on the heads.

  "Go with Vadoma to the village hall" Sylvia ushered them together.

  "Let’s go" as they headed downstairs, the tiger was waiting at the door.

  "I’m ready, let’s do this."

  As they were ushering the villagers to the hall and everyone else was getting into place, they were at least two people short.

  "It is Angus and Marly" Vadoma looked worried, Theo herded her into the village hall but as he went to shut the door he saw them arrive and this time they were ready for battle. Theo and his warriors readied for battle, too late for him to go unnoticed, although in fairness there wouldn’t be any survivors to tell her about him.

  Stepping forward, he was flanked by Darius, Connor, Leyland and Mitch.

  "This is your only opportunity to leave this village intact, leave now."

  The vampires laughed and stepped closer, "do you really think you can take us on" two more stepped in sight both dragging a human, Angus and Marly, Theo growled, Darius stepped closer to the vampire’s, Theo held his hand out to stop him.

  "Last chance..." he waited "no? Fine take your chances."

  He nodded his head and prayed this would work, "take the ones with the hostages down first."

  And then they were down, he had positioned 5 of the best marksmen in the top windows of the houses; each could aim pretty much anywhere in the village square. As he watched the surprise on their faces he felt a little smile inside, Angus and Marly went to run when they released their grip on them, but one of the vampires moved too quick for them. Darius had seen it coming; staking him as he grabbed them both and sped to the door of the hall with them.

  He heard the door open but didn't turn, keeping his eye on the vampires in front of him, he nodded again but they were ready this time. As his snipers let loose a volley of 5 stakes, well they were more like thick and pointed arrows, only 3 of the vampires fell, until their hearts were incinerated they were not completely finished but it gave them time.

  "Then there were 4, how would you like to do this, you run and we chase, you fight and we kill. It doesn’t matter the end result is the same."

  They didn’t look so smug now but it wasn’t completely over, 4 more vampires stepped from the bushes.

  "Let me take the two to my right, they were the worst ones to me a
nd my son." The tiger was out for blood, Theo wasn’t going to argue with a tiger,

  "Connor take the 2 to the right, Leyland the one directly in front of me, I will take the 2 furthest back, Darius the one inching back needs taking down and any others that join them."

  "Theo, Lewis is watching from one of the high windows, he says there are 4 more in the trees, I have two men headed to the higher windows to take them out as they drop, but in case we miss be aware" Those who had been on patrol were inside resting, Theo wasn’t willing to lose any of them due to exhaustion.

  "Thanks Connor, everyone got that" This time the vampires took the lead moving forwards and sideways, Theo focussed on his target, pulled his sword from its sheath, he used brute force to knock one down while he swung his sword, the vampire pulled back and although he missed decapitating him he did slice his neck, the vampire pulled out a machete from a sheath on his belt.

  Theo jumped and kicked him in the chest before he had chance to use it, the other vampire had jumped on his back. With a growl Theo allowed his wolf free reign, shifting with the vampire on his back, his wolf reared up howling, he saw some of his warrior friends had already let free their wolves. As the vampire on his back went to bite him, he bit into the arm wrapped around his chest area, the vampire screamed, he bucked him off and ripped into his throat, to finish him he had to bite deeper and severe the spinal cord where it met the neck. When the vampire was finally decapitated, he turned too late to see the machete coming across his neck and had no chance to counter it, in that instant he knew he had failed them all, Imogen, Lewis, Celia, Liza, the pack, his friends, he wasn’t going down without a fight but there was no way he could survive it. Rather than run from it, he moved into it, better his back than his neck, maybe. Theo bit into the vampire’s leg, using all of his strength, he saw the vampire brace himself and Theo readied for the impact.

  It never came, instead he watched a spear go into the vampire’s chest with uncanny precision, looking to his left he saw Lewis running forward, a look of pure anger and adrenaline on his face, his fangs protruding and wide eyes, he had thrown the spear and saved Theo’s life. Before Lewis stopped he made sure to retrieve his spear.

  Before he had chance to do anything Theo saw another vampire drop from the tree and head straight to Lewis, running to Lewis, he stopped and used his mouth to push Lewis onto his back. Shit he couldn’t make it through the crowd without risking Lewis. He prepared to attack, heading straight for the neck of the vampire running at them, he leapt and tore at him before landing. The vampire was bleeding but still coming at them, as he went for another leap Lewis threw the spear again, this time hitting the vampire in the eye. The vampire screamed and Theo leapt as Lewis stabbed him in the heart with a stake.

  As he turned and shifted into the man, Lewis still on his back, weapons attached.

  "You ready kid, hold on," he pulled the spear out of the vampire, handing it back to Lewis, grabbing his sword both let out a war cry and swept through the crowd, between them they took down another 4 vampires, before reaching the doors of the village hall. Dropping Lewis he turned to assess the carnage, all in all there was only 4 vampires, left, no three, he saw Darius decapitate another. And then there were none. Darius had barely broken a sweat, the man was a monster.

  Leaning against the wall he took a deep breath, man that was both hell and exhilarating at the same time. Everyone stepped back, some bent at the waist out of breath, others were sitting on the floor, her heard the doors slowly open and people filing out. Slowly they started laughing and hugging each other and then them. Mitch was actually laid on the floor, before he jumped up.

  "Don’t mean to rain on everyone’s parade but dawn is a coming and we haven’t finished, we need to clean up."

  Although they groaned people moved, the villagers gasped in disgust as the warriors started ripping out hearts and calling down the fire, in total they finished 26 vampires. Several people were injured but thankfully none were serious. The worst thing was trying to work out who was going to do the day patrols, the vampires might be stronger in the darkness but witches, shifters and other species didn’t need the cover of night.

  As he tucked the twins into bed, he saw that Lewis was still pumped "I am really mad that you left the village hall and at some point in the future I will deal with that, but I am also proud to call such a small brave warrior my brother. Don’t think I don’t know what you have done, if it wasn’t for you I would likely be dead so I owe you" he bent and kissed his forehead and turned to leave.

  "Theo."

  "Mmm."

  "You already paid me back, this last 3 weeks has been the best of my life, thank you.."

  As Theo shut the door and headed into his room he felt wetness on his cheek, he had tears running down his face. Nina was waiting for him,

  "Theo, what’s the matter are you hurt? Tell me who did it, screw Destiny I will finish this now" he looked at this strong goddess who had found a place in his heart, he didn’t know what to say so he moved forward and embraced her, as she held him back, he tightened his grip.

  "I am not hurt, for the first time in my life I feel so incredibly blessed that I don’t know how to act, what to do? And then someone says something that shouldn’t bother me but it does."

  As he let go, he sat on the end of the bed, she sat next to him "ah, the first time your happiness made me happy, I was so scared, I thought I was going to become the Goddess of Goodwill" she laughed, "it took a while to be comfortable with the feelings," he was so tired, he laid back on the bed his eyes already drifting.

  "I need to sleep if I am to do that again, I suspect she will send more soon. Need to sleep to be on the ball" and with that he was asleep and snoring, he felt something touch his cheek, he didn’t realise it was Nina kissing his cheek, he did hear her whisper "sleep my baby if you need it I will negotiate reinforcements."

  Chapter 28

  The lone figure cloaked in darkness watched from the base of the tree, he had been here watching them every night for the last week. How interesting to see these particular people fighting on behalf of those dirty, scummy gypsy's.

  He had watched the wolves with a particular fascination, they were strong, their strength was in their commitment and loyalty to each other. In another lifetime he might have appreciated the meaning of this, but he had never been one prone to reflection.

  It had been nearly 300 years since he last saw him, 300 years of looking and waiting for his time to have his revenge. He could watch and wait, he was immortal, he had all the time in the world to plan and prepare. Taking the photo out of his pocket, he always kept it close; he kissed the image and returned it, brushing past the stake in his pocket. It was time to stock up on silver bullets.

  He would bide his time, watch this battle; work out their weaknesses before striking. He had to say he was impressed with the vampire, the confidence and ease with which he killed was to be admired. It wouldn’t be enough to save them but he believed in giving credit where it was due.

  Chapter 29

  It had taken a few days but she and Ice were back on track. Imogen was jazzed, Nina was right, she did have a destiny, a plan, she knew what that was and how she was going to do it, well sort of. After meeting with Ben and Vlad, she was pleased at their enthusiasm, okay maybe not as excited as she, but they had both agreed to give her free reign so she had already started making the plans.

  Looking around the 5th property of the day, Imogen knew it was the right one, it was large, safe, secure and in between Vlads mansion and Silvers land. As soon as night fell, Ice and the other Elite warriors who weren’t on patrol started helping her sort out the decorating and furniture.

  As Imogen started giving the orders, Ice’s cell rang, because of her new sensitive hearing she heard the details and before he hung up the phone she was ready, "let’s go."